This Hidden Glacier Has Enough Water to Fill 600 Olympic Swimming Pools
And there are more than 50,000 others like it worldwide The post This Hidden Glacier Has Enough Water to Fill 600 Olympic Swimming Pools appeared first on Nautilus .
In the mountains of Utah, a glacier known as Timpanogos Glacier awaits discovery. Unlike typical glaciers, this one is hidden beneath layers of loose rock, ranging from tens to hundreds of feet thick. Over 51,000 of these hidden glaciers exist worldwide, with 836 located in Utah alone. They play a crucial role as climate-resilient water reservoirs and habitats for alpine wildlife.
However, their elusive nature makes them challenging to measure. A team of geologists from Utah University developed a unique technique to uncover the true extent of water stored in these glaciers. By utilizing gravity measurements taken at over 230 locations in a grid pattern, they were able to create a three-dimensional map revealing the distribution of ice and rock within the glacier.
The findings indicate that 17% of Timpanogos Glacier is made up of surface rock, while the remaining 83% is composed of ice. This substantial amount of ice contains approximately 1.5 million cubic meters of frozen water, enough to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools. By modeling the relationship between surface area and ice beneath, the researchers estimated that there could be a staggering 48 billion metric tons of water, equivalent to 400,000 Olympic swimming pools, stored in these hidden glaciers worldwide.
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