Great Nunatak

Great Nunatak is a 3,652-foot (1,113 m) elevation summit located 21 mi (34 km) west of Valdez in the Chugach Mountains of the U.S. state of Alaska. This remote mountain is situated near the terminus of the Columbia Glacier, 11 mi (18 km) southeast of Columbia Peak, on land managed by Chugach National Forest. This 2.2-mile long feature has a secondary summit, elevation 3,412 ft. Great Nunatak traces its name to Grove Karl Gilbert, a geologist with the United States Geological Survey who was part of the 1899 Harriman Alaska expedition that explored this area. He believed it to be the largest nunatak in Alaska when he casually referred to it as "the great nunatak" in a 1902 publication. The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1975 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. While the name remains, its status as a nunatak is obsolete because glacier lobes that once barely touched, now no longer completely encircle this landform as the Columbia Glacier retreats, and tidewater of Columbia Bay replaces the ice on the north and west aspects of the mountain.