Alpine Glaciers

Image Description from historic lecture booklet: “Of the three great classes referred to above, the most widely known is the alpine type, which derives its name from the mountains of central Europe, where it was first studied. Alpine glaciers occur about high peak and on the summits and flanks of mountain ranges in many parts of the world, but reach their most perfect development in temperate regions. The Himalayas, the Alps, the mountains of Scandinavia, the Southern Alps of New Zealand, the Cordilleras, etc., furnish well-known examples. Glaciers of this type originate as a rule in amphitheaters and cirques, partially surrounded by lofty peaks and overshadowing precipices, and flow through rugged valleys leading from them as winding ice rivers which carry the excess of snow falling on the mountains into the lower regions, where a higher mean annual temperature causes it to melt. They are essentially streams of ice, formed usually by the union of many branches, and end abruptly when the drainage changes from a solid to a liquid form.”

1915