The Calderone Glacier
The Glacier – summer 07 photos (ita) - summer 08 photos (ita)
summer 09 photos (ita)
Pictures (panoramic, front, glacial limo)
Statistic Data Notes - Fonts
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.
June
2007, Di Paola’s Archive
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
Alessandro
Di Paola
translation by Giuseppe Petricca
1927,
Rovelli’s Archive
Links:
website dedicated to the Calderone glacier, historic pictures, last updated 1998
…to
be continued.