In the News
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NPR Monday, Sep. 30, 2024
Why the most climate-resistant glaciers are hiding in plain sight
In the Wasatch mountains near Salt Lake City, Utah, a popular hiking trail winds up through aspen and spruce trees to reach White Pine Lake.
Scott Hotaling is marching up this familiar path, but passes by the lake. He continues uphill and, after crossing a mossy stream, starts picking his way through a field of boulders.
His goal is looming above: a steep, 80-foot-tall wall of what looks like loose rock.
This is the source of the lake’s water, a so-called rock glacier.
While the word “glacier” may conjure up images of white slopes and snowy expanses, rock glaciers are big masses of flowing ice that are covered up by, well, rocks.