Glacier Noir
| Glacier Noir | ||
|---|---|---|
 Glacier Noir with l'Ailefroide in the background. |
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| location | Hautes-Alpes , France | |
| Mountains | Pelvoux , Western Alps | |
| Type | Valley glacier | |
| length | 5.5 km (1965) | |
| surface | 5,954 km² (1965) | |
| Exposure | east | |
| Altitude range | 3300 m - 2200 m | |
| Coordinates | 44 ° 54 ′ 54 ″ N , 6 ° 23 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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| drainage | via Torrent du Glacier Blanc , Gyr , Gyronde , Durance and Rhône to the Mediterranean | |
The Glacier Noir ("Black Glacier") is a glacier in the French Écrins massif and belongs to the Hautes-Alpes department . Of all the Dauphiné glaciers , its tongue flows the furthest down into the valley. In addition to a favorable topography, it owes this to the fact that its tongue is completely covered with moraine debris in the lower area . As a result, it is better protected against the influence of direct sunlight than z. B. the neighboring Glacier Blanc ("White Glacier"), with which it united in 1866 above the Pré de Madame Carle to form a single body of ice. While the tongue of Glacier Blanc has retreated to an altitude of around 2400 m to this day, the end of the Glacier Noir is 200 meters lower at around 2200 m .
Glaciers covered with moraine debris are generally referred to in French as glacier noir .
geography
The Glacier Noir is fed by two high-lying firn basins. The northern branch ( branche septentrionale ) feeds on the basin below the Col des Avalanches , at the foot of the Pic Coolidge and the Barre des Écrins , the most southwestern four-thousand-meter peak in the Alps. From here it flows under the south walls of the Crête de l'Encoula (other spelling: Crête de l'Encula ) called ridge, which runs from the barre to the Pointe du Serre Subeyran . Most of the debris that covers the lower tongue of the glacier is transported from the northern branch of the glacier.
The southern branch ( branche méridionale ) has its origin between the walls of the Ailefroide and the Pic Coolidge, below the Col de Coste Rouge ( 3192 m ) and the Col de la Temple ( 3322 m ). It is dominated by the steep north faces of the l'Ailefroide, the Pic du Coup de Saber and the Pic Sans Nom by 1000 to 1500 meters. The ridge that runs east over these peaks to Mont Pelvoux is also known as the Grand Muraille du Glacier Noir . Five peaks on this ridge ( Ailefroide Central , Pointe Fourastier , Pic Sans Nom, Pointe Puiseux and Pointe Durand ) exceed 3,900 meters. On its left bank, the southern branch of the glacier is bounded by the eastern foothills of the Pic Coolidge. Constricted between these walls, the firn stream initially flows in a north-easterly direction until it turns northwards shortly before the two ice streams merge. Debris emerges on the surface of the southern branch of the glacier to a greater extent only in its lower part.
The two ice streams of Glacier Noir still unite at an altitude of a good 2400 m . However, the southern arm is about to retreat over the boundary edge of the lower basin into the upper basin, so that the glacier will split up into a lower and an upper Glacier Noir. The common tongue from the merger currently flows a good 200 meters further downhill and ends under the northern foothills of Mont Pelvoux. It is around 400 m wide here and is surmounted on the left (northern) side by a high and steep lateral moraine , over which a path leads up from the Pré de Madame Carle above the village of Ailefroide.
Measuring the glacier is more difficult than other glaciers due to the debris layer. In 1965 the length of the glacier tongue was about 5.5 km, the area almost 6 km². Due to the debris cover, the variations in these sizes are smaller than in glaciers of the same size that lack such a size.
The Glacier Noir drains into the Mediterranean via the Torrent du Glacier Noir , the Gyr , the Gyronde , the Durance and finally the Rhône .
Development
From the Pré de Madame Carle with the Refuge Cézanne , here the road from the mountaineering village of Ailefroide in Vallouise ends at a large parking lot, the glacier is easily accessible. First, following the path to the Refuge du Glacier Blanc, keep to the left at a fork in the road and thus reach the lateral moraine of the glacier, where you can hike along its tongue high above the glacier.
From La Bérarde , another alpine center in the Écrins massif, the Col de la Temple offers glacier-experienced mountaineers a high, but comparatively easy transition into the Vallouise. The descent takes place over the southern branch of the Glacier Noir, which one follows until the two glacier flows meet, and then crosses the northern branch to the large lateral moraine opposite. The Refuge Temple-Écrins in the Haut Vénéon is ideal as a base .
Historical development
As already mentioned, Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc used to form a single glacier system at times. During the Little Ice Age , the combined ice bodies reached their maximum extent in 1815 and ended roughly at the height of today's Cézanne hut ( 1874 m ). About one kilometer further out of the valley is the old frontal moraine of Fontfroide , a relic of an advance by Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc from before the 16th century. After the glaciers had retreated, the vegetation in the flat floodplain gradually expanded again, creating the lovely landscape of the Pré de Madame Carle.
Web links
- Les cahiers thématiques du Parc national des Écrins - N ° 1 - Les glaciers. (PDF) Parc national des Écrins, December 2005, accessed on October 14, 2010 (French).
- Information about Glacier Noir with historical photos on vallouimages.com
- Robert Vivian: Le glacier Noir. (PDF) Revue de geographie alpine, Année 1967, Volume 55, Numéro 55-4, pp. 733-736, 1967, accessed October 6, 2010 (French).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Robert Vivian: Le glacier Noir. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Revue de géographie alpine, Année 1967, Volume 55, Numéro 55-4, pp. 733-736, 1967, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved October 6, 2010 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ According to another source, 1876 is named as the year Glacier Blanc and Glacier Noir separated, cf. Les cahiers thématiques du Parc national des Écrins - N ° 1 - Les glaciers, page 18. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Parc national des Écrins, December 2005, archived from the original on November 10, 2010 ; Retrieved October 14, 2010 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b See explanations on vallouimages.com .
- ↑ See Les cahiers thématiques du Parc national des Écrins - N ° 1 - Les glaciers. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Parc national des Écrins, December 2005, archived from the original on November 10, 2010 ; Retrieved October 14, 2010 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Information and images on the collapse of the glacier on vallouise.info
- ↑ Anne Letréguilly and Louis Reynaud: Past and forecast fluctuations of Glacier Blanc. (PDF) Annals of Glaciology 13, International Glaciological Society, pp.159-163, 1989, accessed on September 28, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Website of the municipality of Pelvoux in Vallouise ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2006 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
