Maclure Glacier (also McClure Glacier) is on Mount Maclure in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

crest of

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

Tuolumne County, California Tuolumne County (), officially the County of Tuolumne, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 55,620. The county seat and only incorporated city is Sonora. Tuolumne County comprises th ...

, United States. The glacier is named after

William Maclure William Maclure (27 October 176323 March 1840) was an Americanized Scottish geologist, cartographer and philanthropist. He is known as the 'father of American geology'. As a social experimenter on new types of community life, he collaborated ...

. Like most glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, Maclure Glacier is a small

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landf ...

glacier that is long and covers an area of only . The mean elevation of the glacier is around . Both the Maclure Glacier and the Lyell Glacier, located nearby on Mount Lyell, have retreated since their first discovery.

References

Glaciers of California Glaciers of Tuolumne County, California Glaciers of the Sierra Nevada (United States) {{US-glacier-stub

See also

References