The Fedchenko Glacier () or the Vanch-Yakh Glacier () is a large

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 the

Yazgulem Range Yazgulem Range is a mountain range of the western Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Sha ...

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

, of north-central

Gorno-Badakhshan Gorno-Badakhshan, officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan, in the Pamir Mountains. It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its popul ...

province,

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

. The glacier is long and narrow, currently extending for and covering over . It is the longest glacier in the world outside of the

polar region The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles. These high latitu ...

s. The maximum thickness of the glacier is , and the volume of the glacier and its dozens of tributaries is estimated at —about a third of the volume of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

Path and location

The glacier follows a generally northward path to the east of the Garmo Peak. The glacier begins at an elevation of and eventually melts and empties into the Balandkiik River near the border with

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

at an elevation of . Its waters eventually feed down the

Muksu The Mughob (, until 31 July, 2023 muksu) is a west-flowing river in northeastern Tajikistan. It is a tributary of the Vakhsh which in turn is a tributary of the Amu Darya. The river is long and has a basin area of .Surkhob The Vakhsh ( ; Tajik and ), also known as the Surkhob () in north-central Tajikistan and as the Kyzyl-Suu () in Kyrgyzstan, is a Central Asian river and one of the main rivers of Tajikistan. It is a tributary of the Amu Darya river.Vakhsh, and

Amu Darya The Amu Darya ( ),() also shortened to Amu and historically known as the Oxus ( ), is a major river in Central Asia, which flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. Rising in the Pamir Mountains, north of the Hindu Ku ...

rivers into the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

. To the west is the Tajik National Academy of Sciences Range,

Mount Garmo Mount Garmo ( Tajik: Қуллаи Гармо, ''Qullai Garmo'') is a mountain of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, Central Asia, with a height reported to be between 6,595 metres and 6,602 metres.(RussianПамирat wiki.risk.ru, accessed 5 August 2008 ...

Ismoil Somoni Peak Ismoil Somoni Peak (; ) is the highest mountain in Tajikistan, as well as the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union before Tajikistan's independence. The mountain is named after Ismail Samani, a ruler of the Samanid dynasty. It is located in ...

Peak Korzhenevskaya Peak Ozodi (), (until 2020 Korzhenevskoi Peak, ) is the third highest peak in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. It is one of the five " Snow Leopard Peaks" in the territory of the former Soviet Union. It is named after Evgenia Korzhenevskaya, t ...

, the headwaters of the

Vanj River The Vanj (, ''Vanch'') is a river in east Tajikistan. It is a right tributary of the Panj in Vanj District, north-western Gorno-Badakhshan. The river is long and has a basin area of .Yazgulyam River The Yazghulom ( ) is a river in Vanj district, western Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. It is a right tributary of the Panj (upper Oxus). The river is long and has a basin area of .

. To the south is

Independence Peak Independence Peak or Qullai Istiqlol (; ), at , is the seventh-highest peak in the Pamir Mountains, located at the center of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, above the source of the Yazgulem River in the Yazgulem Range. Th ...

and to the east Gorbunov Peak (6,025 meters). To the north is Altyn Mazar.

Discovery

The glacier was discovered in 1878 and was named after

Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko (; 31 August/15 September 1873), or Fedtschenko, was a Russian naturalist and explorer well known for his travels in central Asia. Alternative transliterations of his name, used in languages such as German, include Al ...

, a

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

(but not the discoverer of the glacier). It was not fully explored until 1928 by a German-Soviet expedition under . Between 1910 and 1913 the glacier expanded and moved forward by , blocking up the Balyandlik River the following year. It continued to recede between 1928 and 1960, stopping its inflows such as the Kosinenko, Ulugbeck, Alert and several others. In 2023, Tajikistan officially renamed the glacier as part of a

derussification Derussification (or derussianization) is a process or public policy in different states of the former Russian Empire and the Soviet Union or certain parts of them, aimed at restoring national identity of indigenous peoples: their language, culture ...

program.

Notes

References

"Fedchenko Glacier"

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

online edition. Retrieved 8 December 2005.
"The First National Communication of the Republic of Tajikistan under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Republic of Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China t ...

Ministry for Nature Protection. Dushanbe: 2002.
"Tajikistan 2002: Vital Maps and Graphics on Climate Change"
. Tajikistan Met Service. Retrieved 18 August 2005.

U.S.

Department of the Army The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense. The DA is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is organized. It is led ...

. Published by the Federal Research Division of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. Online version retrieved 8 December 2005.

External links

Map of glaciation in the Pamir Mountains

Google Maps satellite photo of Fedchenco Glacier
(solid white line running approximately vertically in center of image)
Current weather and 5-day forecast
from

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

{{Coord, 38.767, N, 72.283, E, display=title, type:glacier_source:dewiki Glaciers of Tajikistan Pamir Mountains

Path and location

Discovery

See also

Notes

References

External links