Palisade Glacier

Palisade Glacier

Climbing the Palisade Glacier
Type Mountain glacier
Location Palisades, Inyo County, California, USA
Coordinates [1]
Area 0.8 km2 (0.3 sq mi)
Length 1.3 km (0.8 mi)

The Palisade Glacier is a glacier located on the northeast side of the Palisades within the John Muir Wilderness in the central Sierra Nevada of California.

The Palisade Glacier was created 200 years ago during the Little Ice Age.[2] It has an area of 0.8 km2 (0.31 sq mi) and the glacier is 1.3 km (0.81 mi) long and 0.8 km (0.50 mi) wide.[3] It is located between 12,000 and 13,400 feet (3,658 - 4,084 meters). It moves at a rate of 20 feet (seven meters) a year, although it is also retreating.[4] Also, the Palisade Glacier is one of the few glaciers in California that terminates in a lake dammed by its former moraine. The palisade glacier formed from water and frozen ice that freezed over 100 years ago.[5] The lake is a turquoise colour formed by the glacial powder suspended in the water. The Big Pine Lakes below the glacier are also the same colour.[6] Another feature of the glacier is a moulin[4], which was formed in a drought during 1977[7], and a bergschrund.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Palisade Glacier". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:264458. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
  2. ^ a b Mary Hill (2006). Geology of the Sierra Nevada. University of California Press. ISBN 0520236955. 
  3. ^ James Gregory Moore (2000). Exploring the Highest Sierra. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804737037. 
  4. ^ a b Isaac Nadeau (2006). Glaciers. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 1404231242. 
  5. ^ http://glaciers.research.pdx.edu/california.php Glaciers Online
  6. ^ Allan A. Schoenherr (1995). A Natural History of California. University of Oregon Press. ISBN 0520069226. 
  7. ^ Bill Guyton (2001). Glaciers of California: Modern Glaciers, Ice Age Glaciers, the Origin of the Death Valley, and a Glacier Tour in the Sierra Nevada. University of California Press. ISBN 0520226836.