Why is this place called Jaw Point? The true story has been lost, but this spot is special for a jaw-dropping number of reasons:
The view of Johns Hopkins Glacier
On a clear day, this spot unveils one of the most stunning vistas in the park, Johns Hopkins Glacier surrounded by peaks of the Fairweather Mountains. In this narrow inlet, majestic mountains rise tall, glaciers tumble to the sea, and icebergs dot the waters. It’s magnificent.
The geology
From Jaw Point you can practically see the geographic creation of Alaska, a landscape driven by immense energies. This is a result of the area's position astride the active collision zone between the North American and Pacific plates. This major plate boundary, the Fairweather-Queen Charlotte Fault system cuts across Glacier Bay's western edge. For over 50 million years, the Pacific Plate and Yakutat Microplate have been moving northwest along this fault boundary and plowing obliquely into the North American Plate at about the speed your fingernails grow, or about 50 millimeters per year.Generally, during this collision, the Pacific plate has been forced under the North America plate, but occasional “bits” such as island arcs, pieces of sea floor, fragments of continental margin have been scraped off one plate or the other, shattered, and smeared along the leading edge of North American plate. These geologic bits are called “terranes.” Four such terranes have accumulated in a largely northwest-southeast pattern to form the Glacier Bay region. At Jaw Point you can see several kinds of rocks in close proximity, the “suture zone” where two terranes met.
Harbor Seal Nursery Entrance
Harbor seals haul out on the ice bergs in front of Johns Hopkins Glacier to give birth and nurse pups. These icy platforms are a safe perch for mothers to raise their young. If boats traveled among the ice bergs and scared the seals, mothers and pups could be separated. To protect harbor seals, all vessels, from kayaks to cruise ships, travel no further than Jaw Point until after the pups are weaned in mid-summer. Jaw Point is a memorable spot for Glacier Bay visitors, whether they come for the geology, the views, the wildlife, or all three.
