Snow Hole Glacier

Snow Hole Glacier
	The Schneeloch Glacier in September 2016
location	Upper Austria
Mountains	Dachstein Mountains
Type	Mountain Glacier Karst Glacier
length	0.53 km (DORIS 2019)
surface	0.133 km² (DORIS 2019)
Exposure	northwest
Altitude range	2480 m above sea level A. - 2220 m above sea level A.
Coordinates	47 ° 29 '39 " N , 13 ° 36' 1" E Coordinates: 47 ° 29 '39 " N , 13 ° 36' 1" E
drainage	no superficial drainage (cave system)
particularities	Shadows and snow supply from avalanches

The Schneeloch Glacier is a small glacier in the Dachstein massif .

location

The Schneeloch glacier is located on the Dachstein at the foot of the northern wall of the Hohe Kreuz (2837 m) in the protective position of the Hochkreuz ridge and the Schreiberwand ridge. In contrast to the three larger Dachstein glaciers ( Hallstätter Glacier , Großer Gosau Glacier, Schladminger Glacier ), the Schneeloch Glacier is one of the five smaller glaciers (Schneeloch Glacier, Kleiner Gosaugletscher , Southern and Northern Torstein Glacier , Edelgrieß Glacier ), but with around 13 hectares (2019) it is still theirs greatest. As a typical karst glacier, the Schneeloch glacier has no surface drainage; the meltwater is drained through an underground cave system.

General

At an average altitude of around 2300 m, the Schneeloch glacier has the lowest position of all the Dachstein glaciers, it measures 0.53 km from the glacier base below the Hochkreuz ridge at 2480 m to the edge of the glacier at 2220 m, its width in the middle is 0.485 km, the area 13, 3 hectares (0.133 km²).

It owes its existence primarily to the rock faces of the High and Low Crosses in the south and east and the Schreiberwandkopf in the west, which rise several hundred meters above the glacier. Due to the strong shading, a complete melting has been prevented until today; avalanches from the surrounding walls play a not insignificant role in the maintenance or annual replenishment of the nutrient area . Despite its deep location, the Schneeloch Glacier can be described as an active glacier, as there are few, but existing crevasses that indicate a flow movement.

Glacier level and retreat phases since the high level of 1850

The high level of the Schneeloch glacier around 1850 is attested by mostly well-developed moraine walls up to several meters high. The deepest point of the glacier, which ends with an approx. 600 m wide rim, was around 1850 at 2165 m. As the melting process continued, the glacier mainly lost the areas outside the shadowy walls of the Hohes Kreuz - Hoher Schreiberwandkopf ridge.

As a result, the Schneeloch glacier retreated to the southern corner of the Kares and appeared fairly stationary for a long time. Between 1989 and 2009, the glacier edge only shrank by 3.2 m over a 20-year average []. Larger losses have increased recently, however, from 2009 to 2010 alone the Schneeloch glacier fell by 11.0 m, the decline from 2016 to 2017 at 13.8 m was particularly noticeable. A comparison of the area values (1850: 60 ha; 1913: 44 ha; 1956: 24 ha; 1969: 23 ha and 2018: 13 ha) shows that the Schneeloch Glacier is almost 80% of the area of the glacier stand from the middle of the 19th century has lost.

With increasing days with temperatures with z. Sometimes well above 20 ° C in the high mountains, the shadowy position of the Schneeloch glacier will also lose its importance and in the foreseeable future there will probably only be an area of snow that regenerates annually through avalanches. In the Dachstein massif, this applies to the same extent to the Torstein glacier and the Edelgriesskar and is particularly pronounced z. B. can also be observed at the snow or firn patch near the Birnbachloch in the Leoganger Steinberge .

research

Immediately in front of the moraines of the high level of 1850 are ramparts that indicate a significantly higher age due to the coarse boulders and the degree of leaching. A parallelization of these deposits with the moraines of the Taubenriedelstand on the Hallstatt Glacier and equally large-block moraines in the apron of the Schladminger Glacier would be obvious, but is not mandatory.

In the further apron there are numerous karst tables with increasing base heights, at Schreiberwandegg these finally reach well over 12 cm. Here, since by down facets outside the Egesenstandes is expected, one may here with an assumption Denudationswertes of 1 to 1.5 cm in 1000 years, free of ice of approximately 12,000 years ago ( Older Dryas ) are accepted.

literature

Rainer Hochhold: The glaciers of the Dachstein group . Geographic Institute of the Univ. Innsbruck. 1978. Digitized: The glaciers of the Dachstein group
Hans Kinzl: The karst tables - a means of measuring the lime removal . In: Communications of the Austrian. Geogr. Gesellschaft Vol. 117, pp. 290-303; 1975
Roman Moser: The glaciation in the Dachstein and its traces in advance . Geographic Institute of the Univ. Innsbruck. 1954
Roman Moser: Dachstein Glacier and its traces in advance . Hallstatt Museum Association (ed.). Hallstatt. 1997; 143 pp.
Friedrich Simony: The Dachstein area. A geographical character image from the Austrian Northern Alps . Vienna (E. Hölzl); 1895: 152 pp.

Web links

Commons : Snow Hole Glacier - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Picture gallery

The Schneeloch Glacier in August 2006
The apron of the Schneeloch Glacier with the moraines of the high altitude from 1850
Coarse-block moraine in the apron of the Schneeloch glacier
Karst table in the apron of the Schneeloch Glacier
Karst table in the Schneelochkar
Karst table on Schreiberwandegg; Older dryas