Bis glacier
| Bis glacier | ||
|---|---|---|
 Bis glacier from the east, Weisshorn on the left and Bishorn on the right |
||
| location | Canton of Valais , Switzerland | |
| Mountains | Valais Alps , Weisshorn Group | |
| Type | Mountain glacier | |
| length | 3.5 km | |
| surface | 4.46 km² (1996) | |
| Exposure | east | |
| Altitude range | 4500 m above sea level M. - 2000 m above sea level M. (1986) | |
| Tilt | ⌀ 33 ° (65%) | |
| width | ⌀ 0.8 km | |
| Ice volume | 0.19 ± 0.05 km³ (1996) | |
| Coordinates | 622 311 / 106849 | |
|
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| drainage | Bisbach , Matter Vispa , Vispa , Rhone | |
The Bisgletscher is a glacier on the east side of the Weisshorn massif in the Valais Alps , in the canton of Valais , Switzerland . It has a length of 3.5 km with an average width of 800 m. In 1996 an area of 4.46 km² was determined.
location
The Bis glacier starts on the steep rock faces east of the north ridge of the Weisshorn. At around 3800 m above sea level. M. , the ice masses coming from the Weisshorn and the east ridge of the Bishorn unite in a coffin . To the north, the glacier is connected to the Brunegg glacier via the firn-covered pass crossing of the Bisjoch (3549 m above sea level) . The Bis glacier flows east over the steeply sloping western slope of the Mattertal valley and has a gradient of more than 60% at times. In this area it is wildly rugged. The glacier tongue is currently at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level. The Bisbach rises here and flows into the Matter Vispa at Randa .
Ice avalanches
Because of the steep incline of the lower part of the glacier, larger ice masses repeatedly loosened and fell into the valley. The most devastating known ice avalanche occurred on January 13, 1636. It claimed 37 lives in the mountain village of Randa. There were also numerous ice falls and glacier avalanches in the 19th and 20th centuries, but these rarely resulted in deaths. The ice masses often blocked the flow of the Vispa, causing a lake to be dammed up, which sometimes flooded the lower part of the village of Randa. During the last major ice avalanche on February 5, 1980, the railway line and road in the Mattertal were buried and a lake with a water volume of 500,000 m³ was dammed. This lake gradually emptied again so that a tidal wave did not develop.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Daniel Farinotti, Matthias Huss, Andreas Bauder, Martin Funk: An estimate of the glacier ice volume in the Swiss Alps. In: Global and Planetary Change. 68: 225-231, 2009 ( online ; PDF; 756 kB).
- ^ WGMS: Fluctuations of Glaciers Database. World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich 2013 ( DOI: 10.5904 / wgms-fog-2013-11 ), accessed on December 11, 2013
- ↑ a b c Research Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich : Bisgletscher. In: Glacier Natural Hazards. ( ethz.ch ( page no longer available ), also as a PDF ( page no longer available )).
Web links
- Research institute for hydraulic engineering, hydrology and glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich : Bisgletscher. In: Glacier Natural Hazards. ( ethz.ch ( page no longer available ), also as a PDF ( page no longer available )).
- Map section of the Bisgletscher at maps.geo.admin.ch