The Arctic is what Puget Sound once was

These photos (below) are from a website run by NASA called Earth Observatory, which features satellite photos and pictures taken by astronauts from Earth orbit. They show how a warming Arctic is affecting glaciers. But, I also found these photos interesting because it helps me imagine and understand what happened in the Seattle area during the ice ages.

Puget Sound is also a fjord, and we all learn in grade school that it was carved by glaciers, and that the glaciers were once a mile thick above downtown Seattle. When those glaciers melted and retreated they left steep hillsides, lakes, and a deep watery trench.

Now, look at what happened this summer along Canada's Arctic coast. A block of glacial ice cracked, and the sea ice that held it in place melted. Then, the entire glacier floated away in mere days. In the top photo you see the glacier and ice just before the runaway melting. The bottom shows after. (For scale, this photo would cover an area nearly the size of western Washington state.)




The channels that look like rivers would be like the channels between Seattle or Tacoma and Kitsap.