A glacial outburst has sent floodwaters rushing through the town of Juneau, Alaska, forcing residents to evacuate parts of the state capital. The unusual event, called a glacial lake outburst flood, or GLOF, happened as water spilled out of an ice-dammed lake and gushed downstream through melted tunnels in the underside of a large glacier.
The people of Juneau have experienced at least one such flood every summer for the last 15 years.
“It’s a story about glacier change,” says Jason Amundson, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, who is monitoring the event. The warming climate has caused glaciers here to shrink and separate from