Paradise Glacier is a

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 ...

on the southeast flank 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 ...

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 ...

. It covers and contains 0.8 billion ft³ (23 million m³) with Stevens Glacier included. The glacier is bounded to the west by the Muir Snowfield, Anvil Rock and McClure Rock. There is a single extant main lobe of the glacier, ranging from to , that is connected to the larger

Cowlitz Glacier The Cowlitz Glacier is on the southeast flank of Mount Rainier in the U.S. state of Washington. The body of ice covers and has a volume of 6 billion ft3 (170 million m3). The glacier starts at an elevation of and flows southeast. An adjacent gl ...

. To the south, there was a smaller portion which was near the Cowlitz Rocks and the tiny Williwakas Glacier, ranging from to in elevation and containing the

Paradise Ice Caves The Paradise Ice Caves (also known as the Paradise Glacier Caves) were a system of interconnected glacier caves located within Mount Rainier's Paradise Glacier in the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the Unite ...

until the 1990s. This smaller lobe melted between 2004 and 2006. Meltwater from the glacier drains into the

Cowlitz River The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens. The Cowlitz has a ...

Glacier loss

The Williwakas was declared a dead glacier in the 1930s and the ice caves were lost in the 1980s. In a June 2023 report from the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

(NPS), the Stevens Glacier was removed from the NPS glacier list for lack of ice flow and size.

References

{{Authority control Glaciers of Mount Rainier Glaciers of Washington (state)

Glacier loss

See also

References