Ried glacier
| Ried glacier | ||
|---|---|---|
 Ried glacier with Nadelgrat and Ulrichshorn (left) |
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| location | St. Niklaus , Canton of Valais , Switzerland | |
| Mountains | Mischabel , Valais Alps | |
| Type | Valley glacier | |
| length | 5.5 km (2019) | |
| surface | 7.1 km² (2019) | |
| Exposure | northwest | |
| Altitude range | 3847 m above sea level M. - 2360 m above sea level M. (2019) | |
| Ice volume | 0.45 ± 0.11 km³ (1995) | |
| Coordinates | 632 870 / 108 256 | |
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| drainage | Riedbach → Mattervispa → Vispa → Rhone → Mediterranean | |
 Riedgletscher, balloon photo by Eduard Spelterini |
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The Ried Glacier is a valley glacier on the north side of the Mischabel Group , in the Valais Alps , in the canton of Valais , Switzerland . The area of the glacier in 1995 was 7.89 km². In 2010 it was about 5.3 km long, since 1973 its length has decreased by a little more than one kilometer.
The Ried Glacier has its highest starting point on the firn-covered northern flank of the Nadelhorn ( 4327 m above sea level ), an important peak in the Mischabel Group, at over 4200 m . The glacier flows northwards over a steep slope and spreads out at an altitude between 3400 m and 3600 m in a wide hollow, bounded by the Dirruhorn ( 4035 m above sea level ) in the west and Ulrichshorn ( 3925 m above sea level ) in the southwest and the Balfrin ( 3796 m above sea level ) in the east. The Ried glacier then moves northwest into a valley bordered by the Breithorn ( 3178 m above sea level ) in the west and the Färichhorn ( 3292 m above sea level ) in the east . The glacier tongue is quickly narrowing and currently ends at around 2100 m .
The glacier drains into the Riedbach , which flows into the Mattervispa at St. Niklaus . Water is diverted from the Riedbach by means of several "water channels" ( Suonen ), which is used to irrigate the meadows in the municipal areas of St. Niklaus and Grächen .
At its peak during the Little Ice Age around the middle of the 19th century, the Ried Glacier ended below today's tree line. In 1672 the Schalbett chapel was built to protect against the threatening Ried glacier. Every year on September 4th ( St. Jodern ) the vow procession to Schalbett takes place. Since 1895 the Ried Glacier has lost over 1.2 kilometers in length; from 2008 to 2009 alone he lost 500 meters in one year.
On a ledge east of the Ried glacier stands at 2886 m above sea level. M. the Bordierhütte of the Swiss Alpine Club SAC. It can only be reached by crossing a glacier and serves as a starting point for mountain climbs in the northern Mischabel massif.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Fischligrind, ( [1] ).
- ↑ 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 Research Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) of the ETH Zurich (Ed.): Riedgletscher. In: Swiss Glacier Measurement Network. ( ethz.ch , also as PDF , accessed on February 21, 2014).
- ^ WGMS: Fluctuations of Glaciers Database. World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich 2013 ( DOI: 10.5904 / wgms-fog-2013-11 ), accessed on December 11, 2013
Web links
- Map section at map.geo.admin.ch