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Dead ice mass

A dead ice mass occurs when a large amount of ice loses contact with the glacier.

This can be the case when the tongue of a melting glacier retreats over/behind a rock step, leaving glacial ice at the foot of the rock step.

Dead ice mass (Tiefen glacier, 4.8.2019)

Yellow points: Glacier tongue
Orange dots: Dead ice mass

A dead ice mass can also form when a long, only slightly inclined glacier tongue retreats rapidly. If the glacier tongue has a large collapse funnel at the right place, there is a possibility that a large piece of ice will lose contact with the tongue and remain as a dead ice cone.

Dead ice mass (Unteraarglacier, 25.8.2017)

The glacier tongue has retreated to the left in the flat terrain. In this zone there was previously a collapse funnel, which enlarged until it reached first the front and later the lateral margin of the glacier. This is probably how the dead ice mass was formed. A person is standing in front of the dead ice cone. That so that the size can be estimated.

Published: 09.08.2021

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