Overview
- Peer-reviewed papers published Aug. 26 report that the Timpanogos rock glacier contains about 1.5 million cubic meters of ice, roughly 83 percent of its volume and enough to fill about 600 Olympic swimming pools.
- The team measured tiny differences in gravity at 232 points on a 25-meter grid in fall 2024 and used a novel 3-D Bayesian inversion to map the shape and depth of the buried ice.
- Researchers used the Timpanogos result to derive a surface-area-to-volume relationship and estimate that Utah’s 836 documented rock glaciers may hold about 1 gigaton of water and the world’s ~50,000 known rock glaciers about 48 gigatons, with those numbers reported as model-based outputs that need further validation.
- A complementary modeling study shows many Utah rock glaciers grew after the last glacial maximum by rockfall burying persistent snow, a formation pathway that can make these features relatively stable stores of frozen water.
- The findings highlight that debris-covered rock glaciers hide substantial freshwater that can affect regional water budgets and alpine habitats, and they point to a need for more ground surveys and gravimetry to improve inventory and resource planning.