Fryingpan Glacier is on the eastern face of the

Little Tahoma Peak Little Tahoma Peak, also called Little Tahoma, is a satellite peak of Mount Rainier in Pierce County, Washington and in Mount Rainier National Park. It is quite noticeable from Seattle over away. Little Tahoma Peak is a volcanic remnant. I ...

, just to the east of

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. The glacier is located on top of a cliff from the

Emmons Glacier Emmons Glacier is on the northeast flank of Mount Rainier, in Washington. At , it has the largest surface area of any glacier in the contiguous United States. The glacier was named after the geologist Samuel Franklin Emmons after his involvement ...

to the north and a small ridge separates this glacier from the

Whitman Glacier The Whitman Glacier is a medium-sized glacier on the eastern flank of Little Tahoma Peak, a sub-peak of Mount Rainier in Washington. Named for the missionary Marcus Whitman, it covers and contains 4.4 billion ft3 (125 million m3) of ice. Startin ...

to the south, except for a small snowfield in which these two glaciers are connected. Most of the ice is located on a broad plateau at an elevation of . The head of the Fryingpan Glacier is located to the northeast of the ridge and at the foothill of Little Tahoma Peak at around . The glacier flows downhill eastward and the uneven

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

causes the glacier surface to be

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...

d The glacier ends on shallow to steep slopes at about . Numerous snowfields and

alpine meadow Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

s are located near the bottom and east of the glacier. Meltwater from the glacier drains into the White River.

References

Glaciers of Mount Rainier Glaciers of Washington (state) {{Washington-glacier-stub

See also

References