Storglaciären (Swedish for ''The Great 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 ...

in Tarfala Valley in the

Scandinavian Mountains The Scandinavian Mountains or the Scandes is a mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula. The western sides of the mountains drop precipitously into the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, forming the fjords of Norway, whereas to th ...

Kiruna Municipality Kiruna Municipality (; ; ; ) is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Norrbotten County in northernmost Sweden. Its administrative centre, seat is located in Kiruna. It is the northernmost municipality in Sweden, and at is Sweden's geograph ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The glacier is classified as polythermal having both cold and warm bottom temperatures. It was on Storglaciären that the first glacier mass balance research program began (immediately after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), which continues to the present day; this is the longest continuous study of its type in the world. Storglaciären has had a cumulative negative mass balance of -17 m between 1946 and 2006. The program began monitoring the Rabots Glaciär in 1982, Riukojietna in 1985, and Mårmaglaciären in 1988. All three of these glaciers have had a strong negative mass balance since monitoring began. For the purpose of studying Storglaciären and nearby glaciers,

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

operates the Tarfala research station in the

Kebnekaise Kebnekaise (; from Sami language, Sami or , "Cauldron Crest") is the highest mountain in Sweden. The Kebnekaise massif, which is part of the Scandinavian Mountains, Scandinavian mountain range, has two main peaks. The glaciated southern peak use ...

region of northern Sweden.

References

Glaciers of Sweden Landforms of Norrbotten County Kiruna Municipality {{Norrbotten-geo-stub

See also

References