Alaska has a new island—not from volcanic activity or shifting land, but from melting ice. NASA satellite images show that the Alsek Glacier has retreated so much that a small mountain, once completely surrounded by ice, is now isolated in water, forming a 2-square-mile island in Alsek Lake, according to Newsweek.
The mountain, known as Prow Knob, became fully separated from the glacier this summer. Located in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska’s Panhandle, the area has seen dramatic environmental changes in recent decades.
Since 1984, both arms of the Alsek Glacier that once encircled Prow Knob have retreated over 3 miles. During the same period, Alsek Lake has nearly doubled in size, now covering about 30 square miles.
“Along the coastal plain of southeastern Alaska, water is rapidly replacing ice,” wrote Lindsay Doermann of NASA’s Earth Observatory. “Glaciers in this area are thinning and retreating, with meltwater forming proglacial lakes. In one of these growing watery expanses, a new island has emerged.”