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Scenic Photography of the North Cascades

Scenic Photography of the North Cascades

Glaciers

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The Cascade Mountains receive abundant precipitation from the nearby Pacific Ocean. In the fall, winter and early spring much of this precipitation falls as snow. If this snow falls in an area where it does not completely melt away during the warmer months, it slowly transforms into ice. When ice reaches a depth of about 50 meters (165 feet) or more it becomes plastic and flows somewhat like a stream, becoming a river of ice called a glacier. Glaciers have carved the many peaks and valleys in the North Cascades that we know today. Though the large ice sheets of 12,000 years ago are gone, many small alpine glaciers remain. Present day glacial activity is evident in many streams and lakes that are variously colored pea green, azure blue or chocolate brown by glacial flour, rock that has been ground into powder by glacial ice and is small enough to be suspended in and color the waters below a glacier.

The North Cascades have the most glaciers of any area in the lower 48 states. These glaciers are natural reservoirs for water which is important for fisheries, farming and power generation. Glaciers are the source for 25 per cent of the region’s water supply of 230 billion gallons of water each year.

Some of this text used from the following

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaciers

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