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The Calderone Glacier

 

The Glaciersummer 07 photos (ita) - summer 08 photos (ita)

summer 09 photos (ita)

Pictures (panoramic, front, glacial limo)

Statistic Data Notes - Fonts

 

NOTE: for summer 2010 click here, for summer 2011 click here, for summer 2012 here. These pages are in italian, but full of photos.

The Calderone Glacier is the only Glacier of the Appennini Mountain Range and it is traditionally considered the most southern of all Europe (about 42° latitude N). It has conquered this record after the extinction of the Corral di Veleta Glacier, in the Spanish Sierra Nevada.

The Glacier was, in the last twenty years, declared extinct many times. Or it was declassified by some researchers while others, instead, classified it as Rock Fossil Glacier.

Using these definitions:

Snowfield: mass of snow

Snowclad: mass of snow and firn

Ice Snowclad: mass of snow, firn and ice. Presence of confirmed for less than 10 years.

Glacier: mass of snow, firn and ice. Presence of ice confirmed for more than 10 years.

 

The Calderone can be necessarily considered a glacier because is unquestionable that there has been ice for at least ten years (there has been ice for centuries!)

Using instead as a definition “mass of snow, firn and ice with an area of approx. 5 hectares” or other similar definitions, the Calderone can be considered a debris covered glacier, devided into two glacierets; showing evidence of movement.

The Calderone is divided into two sectors since summer 2000.

Data:

National Code

1006                

International Code

4AL00A-A1     

Position

Abruzzo Appennines Range, Gran Sasso d'Italia, Vomano Valley

Hydrographic Basin

Fosso Gravone, Mavone, Vomano

Total Area

About 3.5 hectares (about 376737,02 sqft)

Lenght

(Two Parts together) 300 metres (about 984,25 ft)

Feeding

Eolics, from Avalanches, Direct

Exposition

NNE

Classification

Circus Mountain Glacier (pirenaic) - debris covered glacier

Frontal Activity

Undiscernable (the Glacier is in heavy areal, volumetrical and thickness reduction)

Morain

Frontal with ice core

Maximum Ice Thickness

About 25 mt (about 82,20 ft)

Effective Glacial Surface (2005)

About 32.000 sqmt (about 344445,28 sqft)

Snow Limit

Variable (Theorically from about 3100 to 3700 m. a.s.l.)

In 2004 the response time was 29 years, the reaction time 8 and the relaxation time 21.

Volumetric and Areal Decrease of Calderone Glacier.

The Calderone Glacier reacts to climatic variations especially by changing its thickness.

Year

AREA (m2)

VOLUME (m3)

1794

104.257

4.332.207

1884

90.886

3.382.166

1916

63.335

3.368.485

1934

59.713

2.461.529

1960

60.030

1.729.934

1990

52.586

360.931

1999-2000 52.070 313.843
2005-2006 35.545 /
2007-2008 35.545 /


The volume has reduced more than 90%, area more than 50%.
1920-1990 volume reduction= -0.82 m/year
1995-2005 volume reduction= -1.4 m/year

Glacier mass balance 

 

2000-2001 - 511
2001-2002 - 1.847 (al minino)
2002-2003  -264
2003-2004 252
2004-2005 -194 (al minimo)
2005-2006 1.090
2006-2007 -2320 (al minimo)
2007-2008 275

 

 

 

Alessandro Di Paola

translation by Giuseppe Petricca

1927.jpg

1927, Rovelli’s Archive

 

 

 

P6170113.JPG

June 2007, Di Paola’s Archive

Links:

website dedicated to the Calderone glacier, historic pictures, last updated 1998

 

to be continued.