A “new” island has appeared in the middle of a lake in southeastern Alaska after the land lost contact with the melted glaciers, as revealed by NASA satellite imagery.
Landmass, named Prow Knob, is a small mountain previously surrounded by Alsek Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. However, Alsek Glacier has been retreating for decades, slowly separating from Prow Knob, leaving behind a growing freshwater lake afterwards.
A recent satellite image taken by Landsat 9 in August reveals that the glacier has lost all its connections with Prow Knob, according to a statement released by NASA’s Earth Observatory. Prow Knob provides a clear visual example of how glaciers are thinning and retreating in southeastern Alaska.
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“Along the coastal plains of southeastern Alaska, water is rapidly changing ice,” wrote Lindsey Doermann, a science writer for the NASA Earth Observatory, in a statement. “The glacier in the area is thinning and retreating, and Meltwater is forming a lake fractured from the front. One of these growing watery expanses has revealed a new island.”
Related: Glaciers in North America and Europe have lost “unprecedented” amounts of ice in the last four years
The Alsek Glacier was surrounded by a Prow Knob, split into two channels and with about two square miles (5 square kilometers) of land. In the early 20th century, the glacier stretched across Lake Alsek, which is exposed to the present day, and stretched to approximately three miles (5 km) west of Praunob, up to Gateway Knob.
The late glaciologist Austin Post, who took an aerial photograph of Alsek in 1960, was named Prow Knob after its resemblance to the bow of a ship (a pointed front end). Based on the rates that retreated between 1960 and 1990, Mauli Pelt, a professor of environmental science at Nichols University in Massachusetts, had previously predicted that the Alsek Glacier would release a Prow Knob in 2020, according to the statement. Thus, the glacier clings to the mountain slightly longer than initially predicted.
According to the statement, the Prow Knob was completely isolated from Alsek Glacier from July 13th to August 6th.
Many of Earth’s glaciers are retreating as the planet warms up due to climate change. Last year was the hottest year in global average temperatures since records began, but 2025 has been marked by a series of record-breaking hot months.
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