Billion Tons of Hidden Ice Discovered Beneath Utah Mountains
- When we picture glaciers, it's easy to imagine vast expanses of white ice gleaming under the sky, but the world is also covered in rock glaciers—landforms where masses...
- As University of Utah glaciologist Leif Anderson points out, traversing loose debris or rubble in alpine environments leaves hikers unaware that as much as 120 feet of solid...
- Conventional imaging techniques like ground-penetrating radar are ineffective for rock glaciers because rocky debris mixed in with the ice scatters radio waves and degrades image quality.
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Uncovering Hidden Glaciers Beneath Utah Mountains
When we picture glaciers, it’s easy to imagine vast expanses of white ice gleaming under the sky, but the world is also covered in rock glaciers—landforms where masses of ice and rock coexist, hidden under a hard surface of rock and boulders, according to the source article. There are more than 51,000 documented rock glaciers globally, with over 10,000 located in the United States. Despite their prevalence, these blanketed formations remain hidden from sight under dense rock covers.
As University of Utah glaciologist Leif Anderson points out, traversing loose debris or rubble in alpine environments leaves hikers unaware that as much as 120 feet of solid ice might lie directly beneath their boots.
Gravimeters and 3D Modeling Map Timpanogos Glacier
Conventional imaging techniques like ground-penetrating radar are ineffective for rock glaciers because rocky debris mixed in with the ice scatters radio waves and degrades image quality. To overcome this limitation, the research team used a gravimeter to detect and map hidden underground masses near Mount Timpanogos. Geology graduate student Bronson Cvijanovich operated the gravimeter during 2024 measurements of the Timpanogos Glacier rock glacier.
Co-author and geophysicist Michael Thorne notes that a striking variance in mass density exists between the rocky composition of Mount Timpanogos and the considerably lighter ice housed within the neighboring rock glacier.
When researchers measure gravitational acceleration over the rock glacier, they observe a larger decrease in acceleration over areas with thicker ice. The team completed a survey of 232 measurements at different locations around Timpanogos Glacier.
Using Bayesian statistics and modeling techniques, the researchers processed the survey data to reconstruct the glacier’s thickness, shape, and composition in 3D. Based on these measurements, the rock glacier of Timpanogos Glacier is composed of approximately 83 percent ice alongside 17 percent rocky material by volume, maintaining an average ice depth of 18.8 meters, or 61.7 feet. In total, the Timpanogos formation contains approximately 1.5 million cubic meters of ice, matching the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza or about 600 Olympic swimming pools.
Regional and Global Ice Estimates
In terms of weight, Timpanogos Glacier holds about 1.4 million tons, or 1.5 million US tons, of ice hidden beneath its rocky surface. By combining these findings with data from previous studies on other rock glaciers, the researchers formulated a new method to estimate total ice volume based on surface area measurements.
Calculations from the study indicate that the state of Utah holds about 1 billion tons, or 1 gigaton, of ice across all 836 of its documented rock glaciers. Across the western United States, rock glaciers store nearly 12 billion tons of ice, while global underground stores reach approximately 48 billion tons.