When we imagine glaciers, it is easy to picture vast expanses of white ice shining under the sky. However, not all glaciers look exactly like that.
There is another type of glacier in the world called rock glaciers. These are formations found in mountainous regions where ice and rock masses coexist, hidden beneath a hard layer of stones and boulders.
As revealed by a new study published in the journal “Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface,” rock glaciers can contain a truly astonishing amount of ice.
More than 51,000 rock glaciers have been recorded worldwide – over 10,000 of them are in the USA.
Despite their prevalence, these ice-covered formations are essentially hidden from view beneath a thick and dense layer of rock. Therefore, many people may not even realize that such glaciers exist at all.
“When we are high in the mountains walking over loose rocks or rubble, we do not even think that there could be about 37 meters of ice buried beneath our feet,” said Leif Anderson, a glaciologist at the University of Utah.
A natural layer of rock helps preserve the ice in rock glaciers – it insulates it from sunlight and surface heat. However, the same layer of stones poses a serious challenge to scientists.
One of the biggest difficulties in studying rock glaciers is determining how much water ice they actually contain. This is complicated by the thick cover of stones and rock debris hiding the ice.
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In the new study, L. Anderson and his colleagues tested a new method to estimate the amount of ice accumulated in rock glaciers. They chose the Timpanogos Glacier, located in Utah at the foot of Mount Timpanogos, for their research.
Georadar is usually used to study glacier structure – it allows looking beneath the earth’s surface to determine what lies underneath. However, this method is not as effective for rock glaciers. The rock debris in the ice scatters radio waves, resulting in unclear and much lower quality images.
The scientists tried another method – gravimetry. This device can detect and map masses hidden underground, thus providing an indirect way to determine how much ice lies beneath the rock layer.
With 232 measurements taken at various locations on the Timpanogos Glacier, the scientists developed a new method to visualize the ice hidden inside the rock glacier in three-dimensional space. They reconstructed the glacier’s thickness, shape, and composition.
The results show that the Timpanogos Glacier consists of approximately 83% ice and 17% rock debris by volume. The average ice layer thickness across the entire rock glacier area is 18.8 meters.
In total, these rock glaciers contain about 1.5 million cubic meters of ice – roughly equivalent to the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza or about 600 Olympic swimming pools.
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