| Schneeferner | |
|---|---|
 The Northern Schneeferner and the remnants of the Southern Schneeferner (left), end July 2006 | |
  Schneeferner  Schneeferner  Schneeferner  Schneeferner | |
| Location | Bavaria top |
| Coordinates | 47°24′50″N10°58′30″E / 47.41389°N 10.97500°E |
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The Schneeferner in the Bavarian Alps is Germany's highest and largest glacier. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Schneeferner glacier is located on the Zugspitzplatt , a plateau south of the country's highest peak, the Zugspitze, that descends from west to east and forms the head of the Reintal valley. The meltwaters from the glacier seep away into the karstified plateau and surface again in the Reintal, where they feed the River Partnach. The Schneeferner is one of the northernmost glaciers in the Alps.
In the 19th century, towards the end of the Little Ice Age, a large glacier, the Plattachferner, covered almost the entire Zugspitzplatt between the Jubiläumsgrat arête and the Plattspitzen peaks. It covered an area of about 300 hectares (1.2 sq mi) [6] and left behind large moraines during its subsequent retreat that are still visible today.
From about 1860 until the 1950s the glacier lost roughly 23,000 square metres (5.7 acres) of area each year and by the end of that period had shrunk to about 60 hectares (150 acres). [7] During its retreat, the glacier split into a northern and a southern section towards the end of the 19th century. Later, the so-called Eastern or Little Schneeferner below the summit of the Zugspitze broke away from the northern section and has since totally disappeared. [6]
Thereafter the glacier's retreat was less drastic and the remaining sections of the Northern Schneeferner tended to just shrink in thickness due to their location in a basin. In the 1960s and 1970s, favourable conditions even led to a growth in the thickness of the glacier. [6]
Since 1980 the glaciers on the Zugspitzplatt have again been on the retreat. In 2006 the two remaining parts of the glacier still covered an area of 39 hectares (96 acres); in addition there were a couple of smaller firn fields. [6]
Since 1990, global warming has seen consistently above-average summer temperatures recorded on the Zugspitze. [8] Summer snowfalls have become increasingly rare, which damages glaciers, because such snowfalls decrease the energy absorbed by glaciers and interrupt melting processes by increasing their albedo. About 80 centimetres (31 in) of ice melted has melted annually, on average. If this rate of melting continues, the glaciers on the Zugspitze will disappear between 2015 and 2030, [9] although a few small remnants of ice may survive longer.
With an area of 31 hectares (77 acres) (as at 2006) the Northern Schneeferner (Nördlicher Schneeferner) alone would be the largest glacier in Germany. [1] Its ice sheet is an average of about 17 metres (56 ft) thick and 52 metres (171 ft) at the deepest point. It lies at an average elevation of 2,640 metres (8,660 ft) above sea level and is therefore higher than the other German glaciers: the Höllentalferner, Watzmann Glacier and Blaueis. [1] It flows from west to east with a gentle gradient, especially in its lower reaches. North of the glacier is the arête running from the Zugspitze to the Zugspitzeck; in the west it almost reaches the wide Schneefernerscharte (Schneeferner wind gap). To the east and south it is open; even the Schneefernerkopf mountain to the southwest offers very little shade.
The glacier is mainly fed by precipitation falling directly onto its surface; it is also supplied with snow from avalanches that sweep down from the rocks of the Zugspitzeck and the Schneefernerkopf. The velocity at which the glacier moves is only about 25 to 30 cm (9.8 to 11.8 in) per year in its central section [10] and there is hardly any movement of glacial mass at lower altitudes. On the steep flanks of the Schneefernerkopf the flow rate can be several metres per year, but here the glacier has all but disappeared in recent years; its remnants are covered by gravel and very little accumulation takes place.
Today, the Northern Schneeferner is a winter sports area. Since 1955, five ski lifts have been built on the ice sheet, making it the only German glacier skiing area. At one time summer skiing was also possible here. In order to better support winter sports, the natural evolution of the glacier has been counteracted by transporting snow from surrounding areas. As a result, since 1990 the ice thickness has occasionally increased.
Since 1993, certain areas of the glacier have been covered with tarpaulins during the summer to protect the winter ice and snow from sunshine and rain. In 2007, 9,000 m2 (97,000 sq ft) covered 2.6% of the glacier [11] compared to 6,000 m2 (65,000 sq ft) previously. [10] By doing so it is hoped that the exposure of rocks that could hamper winter sports can be delayed as long as possible. Although preference is given to covering the areas in which glacial melting under natural conditions would be the fastest, these measures have had little effect on the life of the glacier to date. The ice obtained only compensates for about 1% of the loss that is expected in the unprotected areas of the glacier. [11] In 2010, an area 50,000 m2 (540,000 sq ft) was covered by the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway Company, primarily to protect the winter sports areas. [3]
On warm days the ice sheet of the Northern Schneeferner reduces by up to 11 cm (4.3 in). In August 2003 the melting of the glacier produced 35,000 m3 (1,200,000 cu ft) of water daily, roughly one tenth of the average water consumption of the Munich region. [9] [12] Experts describe this melting of ice as Gletscherrauschen ("glacier rushing"), which produces meltwater streams. [10]
The Southern Schneeferner (Südlicher Schneeferner) once covered the entire southwestern part of the Zugspitzplatt. By 2006 only an area of some 8 ha (20 acres) was left and its ice sheet, with an average thickness of less than 5 m (16 ft), was thin. [13] At the end of the 20th century the glacier had split up into a southeastern part below the Wetterwandeck and a northwestern area below the Wetterspitzen, which later divided into the last remaining large sheet of ice and several smaller firn fields. These remnants can no longer be described as a glacier and they may melt completely within a few years. In the summer of 2022, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences officially revoked the Southern Schneeferner's classification as a glacier, citing the overall loss of coverage, thickness and movement of ice. [14]
A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs, as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques, moraines, or fjords. Although a glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris, sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sheet. It may consist of partly rounded particles ranging in size from boulders down to gravel and sand, in a groundmass of finely-divided clayey material sometimes called glacial flour. Lateral moraines are those formed at the side of the ice flow, and terminal moraines were formed at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines and medial moraines.
The cryosphere is an all-encompassing term for the portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground. Thus, there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere. The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric and oceanic circulation.
The Zugspitze, at 2,962 m (9,718 ft) above sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains and the highest mountain in Germany. It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, and the Austria–Germany border is on its western summit. South of the mountain is the Zugspitzplatt, a high karst plateau with numerous caves. On the flanks of the Zugspitze are two glaciers, the largest in Germany: the Northern Schneeferner with an area of 30.7 hectares and Höllentalferner with an area of 24.7 hectares. Shrinking of the Southern Schneeferner led to the loss of glacier status in 2022.
In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi). The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at Last Glacial Maximum, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered much of North America, the Weichselian ice sheet covered Northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America.
The Amundsen Sea is an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica. It lies between Cape Flying Fish to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west. Cape Flying Fish marks the boundary between the Amundsen Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea. West of Cape Dart there is no named marginal sea of the Southern Ocean between the Amundsen and Ross Seas. The Norwegian expedition of 1928–1929 under Captain Nils Larsen named the body of water for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen while exploring this area in February 1929.
The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi), roughly near 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or under the term inland ice, or its Danish equivalent, indlandsis. The acronym GIS is frequently used in the scientific literature.
Jakobshavn Glacier, also known as Ilulissat Glacier, is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland. It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat and ends at the sea in the Ilulissat Icefjord.
The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is well documented and is one of the effects of climate change. The retreat of mountain glaciers, notably in western North America, Asia, the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Africa and Indonesia, provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century. The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level, which would affect coastal regions. Excluding peripheral glaciers of ice sheets, the total cumulated global glacial losses over the 26-year period from 1993 to 2018 were likely 5500 gigatons, or 210 gigatons per yr.
The climate of the Nordic countries is that of a region in Northern Europe that consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. Stockholm, Sweden has on average the warmest summer of the Nordic capitals, with an average maximum temperature of 23 °C (73 °F) in July; Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki have an average July maximum temperature of 22 °C (72 °F).
The Wetterstein mountains, colloquially called Wetterstein, is a mountain group in the Northern Limestone Alps within the Eastern Alps. It is a comparatively compact range located between Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald, Seefeld in Tirol and Ehrwald along the border between Germany (Bavaria) and Austria (Tyrol). Zugspitze, the highest peak is at the same time the highest mountain in Germany.
Garmisch Classic is an alpine ski area in the Bavarian Alps of southern Germany, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria. Its maximum elevation is 2,050 m (6,726 ft) above sea level at Osterfelderkopf, with a vertical drop of 1,350 m (4,429 ft). Other peaks of ski area are the Kreuzjoch at 1,719 m (5,640 ft) and Kreuzeck at 1,651 m (5,417 ft).
The Reintal is the name given to the upper and lower valleys of the River Partnach between the Zugspitzplatt plateau and the Partnachklamm gorge. A hiking route to Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze runs through the valley.
The Höllentalferner is a glacier in the western Wetterstein Mountains. It is a cirque glacier that covers the upper part of the Höllental valley and its location in a rocky bowl between the Riffelwandspitzen and Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, means that it is well-protected from direct sunshine.
The Watzmann Glacier is one of the five recognised glaciers in Germany.
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The Knorr Hut is a mountain hut belonging to the German Alpine Club and located in the Wetterstein Mountains at a height of 2,052 m. Its lies right on the edge of the Zugspitzplatt where it drops into the Reintalanger in a location with scenic views and is an important base for hikers who can climb up to it on the normal route from the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen through the Reintal valley to Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze.
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