Unteraar glacier: Formation of the future glacial lakes
Situation plan glacier end Unteraar glacier
Copyright of the map: Federal Office of Topography swisstopo. Distance from grid to grid: 1km.
Legende:
- Red lines: Outline of the future glacial lake. Source: Above-mentioned study.
- Red dot 1 = Our
location 1
- Red dot 6 = Our
location 6
- Red dot 14 = Our location 14.
- Yellow line = angle of view
- Line in magenta = beginning/end of the angle of view
Points 1, 6 and 14 were measured with a handheld GPS device.
The screenshot from map.admin.ch was taken on 6.1.2023.
The map shows the status as of approx. 2016.
Key data of the lake according to the study:
- Area: 0.837km2
- Largest depth: 79.6m
- Average depth: 16.0m
The panoramic photo below was taken from
location 14 and shows a 360° view.
Situation at the end of Unteraargletscher glacier on 11.6.2022.
According to the site plan above, a lake should have formed or be forming around site 14.
The terrain around site 14 has not changed visually since 2021. A alluvial fan is flowed through by two branches of the Triftbach (plus possibly meltwater from the glacier). We assume that there is no more ice below the debris and that no more lake will form around site 14.
It is conceivable that a lake will form from the foot of the ice wall (direction S to SW) in the direction W in the coming years.
The Unteraar glacier is covered with a lot of debris in the area of the tongue. This may have influenced the measurement of the ice thickness and/or made the interpretation of the measurement results more difficult.
It is conceivable that between the measurement of the ice thickness and our recording, a lot of debris was washed out of the northern glacier gate and deposited in front of the glacier, preventing the formation of a lake.