Abyss Lake is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in southeastern

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. Lying on the eastern side of the Brady Glacier, it receives

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

from it, which in turn flows into the Dundas River, Dundas Bay,

Cross Sound Cross Sound is a passage in the Alexander Archipelago in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Alaska, located between Chichagof Island to its south and the mainland to its north. It is long and extends from the Gulf of Alaska to Icy Str ...

and thence into the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

. A part of the

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is a national park of the United States located in Southeast Alaska west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on Febru ...

, its water is regularly blocked by an

ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

dam. When such a dam breaks in a

glacial lake outburst flood A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a j� ...

, much of the lake's water is propelled into Dundas Bay, along with trees, ice chunks, and sediment. This has happened in 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2005, and again in September 2006.KINY Radio – Juneau Daily News – Latest Edition

References

External links

Ready to burst? Southeast and Southcentral Alaska lead the world in glacial floods
Bodies of water of Hoonah–Angoon Census Area, Alaska Lakes of Alaska {{HoonahAngoonAK-geo-stub