Riffelfirn

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Riffelfirn in the southwest face of the Alpamayo

As Riffelfirn (also Rillenfirn , Eng. Fluted Snow ) refers to snow and firn in very steep slopes, has the eye-catching, regular groove toward the fall line. Typically, such riffle ridges can be found in the steep slopes of the accumulation areas of tropical and subtropical glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes . The Alpamayo in the Andes and the Ama Dablam in the Himalayas are among the most famous mountains with riffle ridges . Riffelfirn can also be found in the flanks of a ridge of Denali .

The cause of the formation of such structures is assumed to be a combination of deposits of hoarfrost on the edges and erosion in the grooves caused by avalanches. Humid air masses, as they often occur in the tropics and subtropics, could play a role here.

literature

  • Alexander Stahr, Thomas Hartmann: Landscapes and landscape elements in the high mountains. Springer, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-642-58466-4
  • Michael J. Hambrey, Jürg C. Alean: Color atlas of glacial phenomena. CRC Press, Boca Raton 2017, ISBN 1-4822-3440-8

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c swisseduc.ch: Rillenfirn. Retrieved December 9, 2017
  2. ^ A b Alexander Stahr, Thomas Hartmann: Landscapes and landscape elements in the high mountains. Springer, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-642-58466-4 , p. 222 ( online ).
  3. ↑ a b Michael J. Hambrey, Juerg C. Alean; Color atlas of glacial phenomena. CRC Press, Boca Raton 2017, ISBN 1-4822-3440-8 , p. 111 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Fluted snow  - collection of images, videos and audio files