<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/hubbard_oli_2014203_detail_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/hubbard_oli_2014203_detail_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/hubbard_oli_2014203_detail_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > This image, taken on July 22, 2014, shows the advancement of the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska, as compared to previous years. (NASA) (NASA)

For years, images of melting glaciers have been a big part of the climate change discussion. But there's one image released this week by NASA that shows one Alaskan glacier that might actually be growing.

Part of Hubbard Glacier has been advancing into Disenchantment Bay for more than 100 years, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. In addition to its movement, the glacier has been thickening as well, bucking the worldwide trend of thinning, shrinking glaciers.

The image at the top of this page was captured on July 22, 2014, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. Then, yellow lines were placed over the current image to show where the terminus, or lowest point on a glacier, was located in 1978 and 2002. Quite clearly, the glacier is creeping further into Disenchantment Bay.

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University of Kansas glaciologist Leigh Stearns told NASA that the same factors allow the glacier's terminus to advance. When snowfall either runs down or melts from the catchment basin, it allows the terminus to grow.

The years 1978 and 2002 are important because those are the other two times NASA documented the terminus touching Gilbert Point, cutting off Russell Fjord. When that fjord is completely sealed off, runoff from snowmelt that comes down from the higher elevations causes the water level to rapidly rise.

"One estimate suggests that the fjord could permanently close by 2025," the NASA report says. "But Hubbard’s terminus is nearly 14 kilometers (9 miles) wide, and does not advance at the same rate across its entire width."

But it isn't all good news. The Environmental Protection Agency has charted glacial loss since the 1940s , and that shows a steady decline. Key glaciers that have existed for millennia are collapsing, according to the National Resources Defense Council, and if the current pace of retreat continues, Glacier National Park in Montana will be glacier-free by 2070 .

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