Batura Glacier (), long, is one of the largest and longest

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s outside of the polar regions.

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

's Fedchenko Glacier is long,

Siachen Glacier The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range of the Himalayas, just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends in northeastern Kashmir. At long, it is the longest glaci ...

is long, Biafo Glacier long, and

Baltoro Glacier The Baltoro Glacier (; ) is a glacier located in the Shigar District of the Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan. It stretches for in length. It is one of the longest glaciers outside the polar regions. It is home to some of the world’s high ...

long. The Bruggen or Pio XI Glacier in southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

is 66 km long. Measurements are from recent imagery, generally supplemented with Russian 1:200,000 scale topographic mapping as well as Jerzy Wala,''Orographical Sketch Map: Karakoram: Sheets 1 & 2'', Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, Zurich, 1990. It lies in the upper Hunza (

Gojal Gojal ( Wakhi: , Kyrgyz: ), also called Upper Hunza, is situated in northwestern Pakistan. It borders China at the Khunjerab Pass and the Shimshal valley, and Afghanistan at the Chapursan valley. In 2019, Gojal Valley became the second Karac ...

) region of Hunza District, in

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It is just north of the massifs of

Batura __NOTOC__ The Batura Muztagh () mountains are a sub-range of the Karakoram mountain range. They are located in Passu ( Gojal Valley) in the Hunza District of Gilgit-Baltistan province in northern Pakistan. They are the westernmost sub-range of th ...

, at , and Passu, at . The glacier flows west to east. The lower portions can be described as a grey sea of rocks and gravelly

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

, bordered by a few summer villages and

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

s with herds of sheep, goats, cows and yaks and where roses and juniper trees are common. The Batura Glacier has been the subject of several studies, both because it has several unusual properties and because it is close to the vital

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab p ...

. The climate of the deep valleys around the Batura Glacier is dry, with only about 10 cm of precipitation per year. Snowfall up in the mountains is somewhat higher but still fairly low, with around 100-130 cm per year. The local freezing level is about 4,200 m. The glacier's upper reaches are the coldest; it becomes more temperate in its middle and lower parts. Two-thirds of the glacier in these parts is covered by a thick layer of debris, except for a relatively thin 700 m-wide strip of ice that comes within 4 km of the

glacier terminus A glacier terminus, toe, or snout, is the end of a glacier at any given point in time. Although glaciers seem motionless to the observer, in reality they are in endless Glacier#Motion, motion and the glacier terminus is always either advancing o ...

. As of 1984, the glacier terminus was measured to be about 0.5 km above the Karakoram Highway. The glacier has since retreated, with both backwasting and downwasting occurring.

References

External links

Northern Pakistan detailed placemarks in Google Earth
Glaciers of the Karakoram Glaciers of Gilgit-Baltistan {{NorthernAreas-geo-stub

See also

References

External links