{"id":904130,"date":"2026-09-21T13:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T13:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/904130\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T13:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T13:36:09","slug":"geologists-are-hunting-for-camouflaged-rock-glaciers-vital-to-global-freshwater-supplies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/904130\/","title":{"rendered":"Geologists Are Hunting for Camouflaged \u2018Rock Glaciers\u2019 Vital to Global Freshwater Supplies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The average person\u2019s idea of how climate change might someday plunge the world into a series of post-apocalyptic, fresh-water resource wars<\/a> probably focuses on the simple equation that rising temperatures equal more drought. But the reality is a bit more unusual, according to a recent report<\/a> by\u00a0the United Nations\u2019 World Meteorological Organization.<\/p>\n

Think of the world\u2019s mountain glaciers, like those now melting in the Himalayas<\/a>, as their own kind of freshwater savings account, keeping potable water on literal ice for judicious, naturally timed releases into nearby rivers and underground aquifers. Now, geologists with the Utah Geological Survey, the University of Utah, and other institutions are busy working to locate and catalogue their state\u2019s hidden reserves of ice, frozen into so-called \u201crock glacier\u201d formations often concealed from aerial surveys. The hope, as the state surveyor\u2019s Brigham Young University collaborators described<\/a> it, is to better \u201cinform future water management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using a sensitive gravimeter<\/a>, a gravity-measuring device which helps differentiate between underground deposits of rock and ice, the survey team reports<\/a> that it has documented 70 frozen deposits hidden under debris near the summit of Utah\u2019s Mount Timpanogos outside Provo. Timpanogos\u2019 rock glaciers up near the mountain\u2019s 7,000-foot-tall (2,100-meter-tall) peak, according to one<\/a> of the team\u2019s two new studies, currently contains a total ice volume equivalent to \u201croughly 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools,\u201d or about 396 million gallons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of ice that\u2019s hidden in Utah\u2019s mountains,\u201d University of Utah glaciology professor Leif Anderson, a coauthor on both studies, said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cWhen we are high in the mountains and walking across loose rocks or rubble, you don\u2019t realize there could be 120 feet of ice buried beneath your feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cold comfort <\/p>\n

Based on estimates by Utah\u2019s Department of Natural Resources, meltwater from Utah mountains like Timpanogos provide over 95%<\/a> of the state\u2019s freshwater supplies. And the 232 gravity measurements made by Anderson\u2019s team while traversing atop Timpanogos helped finally figure out where some of that water actually comes from.<\/p>\n

\u201cTimpanogos Rock Glacier is surprisingly ice rich,\u201d Anderson\u2019s research collaborator Bronson Cvijanovich, who studied geophysics at the University of Utah, said in a statement. \u201cIt is 83% ice and 17% loose rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BronsonGeology researcher Bronson Cvijanovich takes gravimeter measurements on top of the Mount Timpanogos rock glacier in 2024. Credit: Bronson Cvijanovich <\/p>\n

Their measurements were made off the principle that changes in mass along various locations along the rock glacier (due to the differing densities of ice, which floats, and rock, which doesn\u2019t) are detectable via very subtle changes in the Earth\u2019s gravitation pull.\u00a0Based on their gravimetric survey of Timpanogos, the team estimated that its hidden glacial ice has an average thickness around 61.7 feet (18.8 meters) deep.<\/p>\n

\u201cRock glaciers flow downhill just like a glacier or river, but the important distinction here is that the thick carapace of loose rock actually protects and hides the ice, making these climate-resilient water storage sites that may still be adding frozen water,\u201d according to Cvijanovich, the lead author of one of studies and now a technician for a local geothermal energy company.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a water resource standpoint, it is really important, especially in a warm and arid state like Utah,\u201d Cvijanovich explained.<\/p>\n

Ice ages <\/p>\n

The second<\/a> new study produced by Anderson and his colleagues developed new modeling tools to measure how much of the Timpanogos rock glacier is ancient permafrost dating back roughly 20,000 years to the last Ice Age, technically known<\/a> as the \u201cLast Glacial Maximum.\u201d Their calculations pooled together data from snow probes planted in May 2024, as well as satellite data measuring the light reflectance of visible snow and climate reports from local meteorological stations.<\/p>\n

Anderson expressed some optimism over the team\u2019s findings, which indicated that ice deposits have managed to occasionally grow while protected from the Sun\u2019s rays within this mountain\u2019s rock glaciers\u2014a reality that might hold lessons for protecting critical glaciers in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just ice that\u2019s left from the time of Lake Bonneville and mammoths,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe don\u2019t yet know which rock glaciers are still adding ice today outside of a few dozen under active research. [\u2026] But Timpanogos rock glacier is still adding ice today!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average person\u2019s idea of how climate change might someday plunge the world into a series of post-apocalyptic,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,6093,26049,66,1895,33260],"class_list":["post-904130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-climate-change","tag-glaciers","tag-science","tag-utah","tag-water-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}