Palisade Glacier facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Palisade Glacier |
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Climbing the Palisade Glacier
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 Palisade Glacier
Location in California
Palisade Glacier
Location in the United States
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| Type | Mountain glacier |
| Location | Palisades, Inyo County, California, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 37°06′00″N 118°30′37″W / 37.10000°N 118.51028°W |
| Area | .31 sq mi (0.80 km2) |
| Length | .81 mi (1.30 km) |
The Palisade Glacier is a huge sheet of ice located high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, U.S.. It sits on the northeast side of a group of tall peaks called the Palisades. This glacier is part of the beautiful John Muir Wilderness area.
What is the Palisade Glacier?
The Palisade Glacier is special because it is one of the few glaciers in California. It flows down from four mountain peaks that are over 14,000 feet (4,267 meters) tall. One of these peaks, North Palisade, is the third highest peak in the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range, standing at 14,242 feet (4,341 meters).
How Glaciers Form and Change
The area where the Palisade Glacier is found is a bowl-shaped hollow called a cirque. This cirque has been home to glaciers for thousands of years. The modern glacier reached its biggest size during a period known as the Little Ice Age. This was a time when the Earth was a bit colder, about 250 to 170 years ago. In the Sierra Nevada, this period is also called the Matthes glaciation.
Today, the Palisade Glacier covers an area of about 0.31 square miles (0.81 square kilometers). It is about 0.81 miles (1.3 kilometers) long and 0.50 miles (0.8 kilometers) wide. The glacier is located at elevations between 13,400 and 12,000 feet (4,084 and 3,658 meters). It moves slowly, about 20 feet (6 meters) per year, but it is also getting smaller over time.
Unique Features of the Glacier
The Palisade Glacier is one of the few glaciers in California that ends in a lake. This lake is called a proglacial lake. It is held back by a ridge of rocks and dirt called a moraine, which was left behind by the glacier in the past. The water in this lake is a beautiful turquoise color. This color comes from tiny bits of rock powder that the glacier grinds up and carries into the water. The Big Pine Lakes located below the glacier also have this same amazing color.
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Another interesting feature of the glacier is a moulin. A moulin is like a vertical shaft or hole that goes down into the glacier. This particular moulin formed during a drought in 1977. The glacier also has a bergschrund, which is a large crack or crevasse that forms at the very top of the glacier, separating it from the rock wall behind it.
