Cloud Peak Glacier is in the
Bighorn Mountains
The Bighorn Mountains ( or ) are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately northward on the Great Plains. They are separa ...
in the northcentral section of the U.S. state of
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
.
Centered within the
Cloud Peak Wilderness of
Bighorn National Forest
The Bighorn National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in northern Wyoming, United States and consists of over 1.1 million acres (4,500 km2). Created as a US Forest reserve, Forest Reserve in 1897, it is one of the oldest government- ...
, Cloud Peak Glacier is the only active glacier in the Bighorn Mountains.
The glacier is in a deep
cirque
A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...
immediately northeast of
Cloud Peak, the highest peak in the Bighorn Mountains. Cloud Peak Glacier lies at approximately above sea level.
[
Cloud Peak Glacier is retreating rapidly and is expected to disappear entirely sometime between the years 2020 and 2034. Photographs taken in 1905 and again in 2005 demonstrated an obvious reduction in the area the glacier, and more ominously, a huge loss of thickness. Between 1905 and 2005, the glacier has been reduced in size from an estimated to .][
]
See also
*Retreat of glaciers since 1850
The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is a well-documented effects of climate change, effect of climate change. The retreat of Mountain glacier, mountain glaciers provides evidence for the Instrumental temperature record, rise in global temperatures ...
*List of glaciers in the United States
Glaciers are located in ten states, with the vast majority in Alaska. The southernmost named glacier is the Lilliput Glacier in Tulare County, California, Tulare County, east of the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of California.
Apa ...
References
Glaciers of Wyoming
Glaciers of Johnson County, Wyoming
Bighorn National Forest
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