or () is the fifth-largest glacier in mainland

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is located on the border of

Fauske Municipality or is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality located in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Fauske (t ...

and

Sørfold Municipality Sørfold is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of S ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county,

—just west of the border with

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Its highest point is above sea level and its lowest point is at an elevation of . Three outlet glaciers extend from the icecap. A small outlet spills over a subglacial ridge to the north damming an unnamed lake resulting in occasion outburst floods. To the east a large outlet extends towards the lake, Leirvatnet. A further outlet descends steeply to the west. The western and northern outlets are heavily crevassed, as is the snout of the eastern glacier calving into Leirvatnet. The glacier also calves into lake

Blåmannsisvatnet or is a lake in Fauske Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The lake lies on the southeast edge of the large Blåmannsisen glacier, about east of the Fauske (town), town of Fauske. The border with Sweden is located about east of the la ...

, resulting in extensive crevasses in the glacier above that lake. Given the degree of crevassing at the margins, traversing the glacier can be dangerous, particularly in late spring or early summer when snow bridges may be weak. Blåmannsisen drains into the local Norwegian hydropower networks operated by Elkem and Saltens Kraftsamband and into the one in Luleälv,

. The ice-dammed lake on the northern margin occasionally produces

jökulhlaup A jökulhlaup ( ) (literally "glacial run") is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst floo ...

s (also known as glacial lake outburst floods). The icecap is typically thick, exceeding in places. The

equilibrium line altitude Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clim ...

(ELA) is around on the eastern side of the icecap, above the Leirvatnet outlet. Satellite imagery, including that used by Google Earth, shows extensive exposed

firn __NOTOC__ Firn (; from Swiss German "last year's", cognate with ''before'') is partially compacted névé, a type of snow that has been left over from past seasons and has been recrystallized into a substance denser than névé. It is ice that ...

suggesting the ELA has retreated in recent years in common with other temperate icecaps in Norway. The southern margin of the glacier exhibits a forefield exposed since the retreat from the '

Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Mat ...

' maximum with a well formed

end moraine A terminal moraine, also called an end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front e ...

marking a former margin.

External links

The largest glaciers in Norway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaamannsisen Glaciers of Nordland Fauske Sørfold

See also

Further reading

External links