The Saskatchewan Glacier is located in

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense conif ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, approximately northwest of the town of Banff, and can be accessed from the

Icefields Parkway Highway 93 is a north–south highway in Alberta, Canada. It is also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway south of the Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1) and the Icefields Parkway north of the Trans-Canada Highway. It travels through ...

. Saskatchewan Glacier is the largest outflow glacier from the

Columbia Icefield The Columbia Icefield is the largest ice field in North America's Rocky Mountains. Located within the Canadian Rocky Mountains astride the Continental Divide along the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, the ice field lies partly ...

, which rests along the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, no ...

. The glacier is a primary water source for the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...

. The glacier is approximately long and covers an area of 30 km² (11.5 mi²) and was measured in 1960 to be over thick at a distance of from the terminal snout. Between the years 1893 and 1953, Saskatchewan Glacier had retreated a distance of , with the rate of retreat between the years 1948 and 1953 averaging per year. The glacier, which flows northeast, exhibits a prominent medial morraine.

References

Gallery

File:Castleguard Mountain with Saskatchewan Glacier.jpg, Saskatchewan Glacier with Castleguard Mountain from

Parker Ridge Parker Ridge is a mountain ridge located in the upper North Saskatchewan River valley in Banff National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Athabasca, to the west. Parker Ridge is situated along th ...

File:Saskatchewan Glacier & Parker Ridge.jpg, Saskatchewan Glacier &

from glacier's toe File:Athabasca Glacier animation.gif, In this animated gif of the

, glaciated areas in 1990 are compared to 2000. The Saskatchewan Glacier is the large tongue shaped glacier on the left, which has both retreated and thinned along most of its length during the period. Banff National Park Glaciers of Alberta {{Canada-glacier-stub

See also

References

Gallery