Hidden Ice Vaults: Utah's Rock Glaciers Could Hedge Water Shortages
TL;DR Summary
Utah researchers mapped the Timpanogos Rock Glacier under Mount Timpanogos and found it contains about 1.5 million cubic meters of ice (enough to fill 600 Olympic pools), implying Utah’s rock glaciers may hold around 1 gigaton (~815,000 acre-feet) of ice and could serve as climate-resilient water storage. The ice-rich interior (83% ice, 17% rock) was revealed using gravity measurements to create a 3D map, and there are more than 50,000 rock glaciers worldwide (836 in Utah), with some still accumulating ice today.
- Scientists Found a Massive Ice Reservoir Hidden Beneath Utah’s Rocky Mountains Gizmodo
- A Billion Tons of Ice Are Hiding Under Utah, Study Finds ScienceAlert
- Utah’s Rock Glaciers May Harbor a Gigaton of Subterranean Ice SnowBrains
- Beneath Utah's rocky slopes, scientists mapped a buried glacier holding enough ice to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools yet composed almost entirely of frozen water hidden under loose debris for thousands of years EcoPortal.net
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