Zinal glacier
| Zinal glacier | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Zinal Glacier in front of Dent Blanche and Grand Cornier |
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| location | Val d'Anniviers , Canton of Valais , Switzerland | |
| Mountains | Valais Alps | |
| Type | Valley glacier | |
| length | 6.95 km (2011) | |
| surface | 13.41 km² (2006) | |
| Exposure | North | |
| Altitude range | 4260 m above sea level M. - 2040 m above sea level M. (2005) | |
| Tilt | ⌀ 23.3 ° (43%) | |
| Ice volume | 0.89 ± 0.15 km³ (2006) | |
| Coordinates | 616 745 / 100186 | |
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| drainage | Navisence → Rhone → Mediterranean | |
The Zinal Glacier ( French : Glacier de Zinal ) is a valley glacier in the southern end of the Val d'Anniviers in the Valais Alps . It is located in the Swiss municipality of Anniviers . The area of the glacier with a pronounced tongue was 13.41 km² in 2005. In 2011 it was almost seven kilometers long, since 1973 it has withdrawn a little more than half a kilometer. The north-facing glacier extends from 4160 m to a good 2000 m above sea level. M. , its average incline is given as 23.3 °.
location
Map with all coordinates of the section Location : OSM
The Zinal Glacier is formed from several spring glaciers . The eastern source glacier is the Mountetgletscher ( Glacier du Mountet ), which has its origin at about 3800 m on the western flank of the Zinalrothorn . ( 46 ° 3 ′ 43 ″ N , 7 ° 40 ′ 32 ″ E )
The Obergabelhorn Glacier ( Glacier de l'Obergabelhorn ) descends from the Ober Gabelhorn with its ice wall . ( 46 ° 2 ′ 37 ″ N , 7 ° 40 ′ 13 ″ E )
Below Grand Mountet these two Firnströme unite with the coming of the south Durandgletscher ( Glacier Durand ). ( 46 ° 2 ′ 25 ″ N , 7 ° 38 ′ 48 ″ E )
Mountet, Obergabelhorn and Durand glaciers belong to the Weisshorn group . The Durand Glacier is separated by the Roc Noir ( 3124 m above sea level ) from the Grand Cornier Glacier ( Glacier du Grand Cornier 46 ° 2 ′ 47 ″ N , 7 ° 37 ′ 24 ″ E ), which is its starting point between the Grand Cornier in the north and the Dent Blanche in the south. The Zinal Glacier receives further ice inflow from the steep slope fires on the northeast flank of the Grand Cornier ( Bouquetins Glacier ).
Below the union of the three most important source glaciers (Obergabel, Durand and Grand Cornier glaciers), the Zinal glacier flows about 3 km to the north through a deep valley between the Grand Cornier in the west and the Besso ( 3668 m above sea level ). in the East. Here the ice surface is largely covered by debris and dust from the central and lateral moraines as well as falling rock debris. The glacier tongue, whose forehead was at 2040 m in 2005 , drains into the Navisence , a left tributary of the Rhone .
Little ice age
Since the high stage of the Little Ice Age in the middle of the 19th century, the Zinal Glacier has retreated significantly. Since 1891, its tongue has melted back more than a mile. In earlier times there was a busy mule track along the Zinal Glacier and over the Col Durand ( 3443 m above sea level ) , on which goods and cattle were transported between Central Valais and Upper Italy. Today the transition over the glaciated Col Durand from the Zinal to the Mattertal can only be mastered by appropriately equipped alpinists.
In August 1834, after heavy rainfall, large amounts of water erupted from the glacier. In the ice body, considerable water pockets had formed, which broke through the lateral moraines, caused great damage out of the valley and temporarily created a lake between Chippis, Chalais and Grône.
SAC huts
The huts of Petit and Grand Mountet are in the immediate vicinity of the Zinal glacier. The Cabane du Petit Mountet ( 2142 m above sea level ) lies on the orographic left lateral moraine of the glacier. It is privately owned. Five hours further up is the Cabane du Grand Mountet ( 2,886 m above sea level ), a hut belonging to the Swiss Alpine Club SAC and located on the southern slopes of the Besso with great views . It is the starting point for numerous mountain climbs and extensive glacier tours in the area.
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Web links
- Map section at map.geo.admin.ch
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Research Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich (Ed.): Zinalgletscher. In: Swiss Glacier Measurement Network. ( ethz.ch , also as PDF , accessed on February 16, 2014).
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ a b 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 Andreas Linsbauer, Frank Paul, Wilfried Haeberli: Modeling glacier thickness distribution and bed topography over entire mountain ranges with GlabTop: Application of a fast and robust approach. In: Journal of Geophysical Research. , Volume 117, F03007, 2012, doi : 10.1029 / 2011JF002313 ( online )
- ^ Research institute for hydraulic engineering, hydrology and glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich : Zinalgletscher. In: Glacier Natural Hazards. ( ethz.ch ( page no longer available ), also as a PDF ( page no longer available )).