290px, Stein Glacier in 1920 Steingletscher 1813 01

The Stein Glacier () is a 4 km long

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 ...

(2005) situated at the

Susten Pass Susten Pass (German: ''Sustenpass'') (el. 2260 m.) is a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps. The pass road, built from 1938–1945, connects Innertkirchen in the canton of Bern with Wassen in the canton of Uri. A 300-metre long tunnel crosses the pass ...

in the

Urner Alps The Uri Alps (also known as ''Urner Alps'', ) are a mountain range in Central Switzerland and part of the Western Alps. They extend into the cantons of Obwalden, Valais, Bern, Uri and Nidwalden and are bordered by the Bernese Alps (Grimsel Pas ...

in the easternmost part of the

canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

.In 1973 it had an area of 6.06 km². The highest points in the accumulation area are at 3420 meters above sea level. The glacier tongue is currently located at an altitude of 2000 meters. Above the lake Steinsee a second tongue lies west of the Tierbergli mountain. The glacier drains through the Gadmen valley and flows into the river

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

near

Innertkirchen Innertkirchen is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district), Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in Bern (canton), the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014, ...

. During the

Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Mat ...

around the middle of the 19th century, the Stein Glacier was 1 km longer than today. During the retreat, the lake Steinsee formed after 1940 on the plain of the former glacier tongue at an altitude of 1934 meters. There were again strong glacier advances of about 300 meters in 1912–1921 and 1969–1981. The glacier has strongly melted back since. The

postglacial The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

history of the glacier and the

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...

has been intensely studied with a multi-disciplinary approach.Lorenz King: ''Studien zur postglazialen Gletscher- und Vegetationsgeschichte des Sustenpassgebietes.'' –In: ''Basler Beiträge zur Geographie.'' volume 18. 125 pages, 3 pollen diagramms as annex, 1974.

References

External links

{{Commons, Steingletscher
Swiss glacier monitoring network
Glaciers of the Alps Glaciers of the canton of Bern GStein

See also

References

External links