The Kautz Glacier is a narrow
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
on the southern flank of
Mount Rainier in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. Named for
August Kautz
August Valentine Kautz (January 5, 1828 – September 4, 1895) was a German-American officer. He served as a general in the Union cavalry during the American Civil War. He was the author of several army manuals on duties and customs eventually ad ...
, who is sometimes credited for the first ascent of Mount Rainier,
covers and contains 7.8 billion ft
3 (221 million m
3) of ice.
Upper Kautz Glacier extends south from the summit ice cap to Kautz Ice Cliff at about .
Immediately west of the main ice cliff, the glacier continues down Kautz Chute which terminates in another ice cliff just above the lower Kautz Glacier at . Usually reached by a short descent from Camp Hazard at on Wapowety Cleaver, climbers following the Kautz Glacier climbing route ascend this chute to the upper glacier.
Starting from the Kautz Glacier Headwall at about , the lower glacier flows generally south-southwest between the Kautz and the Wapowety Cleaver. Just before it meets the
Success Glacier, the Kautz makes a right turn and heads west for a short distance. After the two glaciers meet, the resultant glacier reaches down to about before terminating. Meltwater from the glacier drains into
Kautz Creek Falls and into
Kautz Creek, a
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the
Nisqually River
The Nisqually River is a river in west central Washington in the United States, approximately long. It drains part of the Cascade Range southeast of Tacoma, including the southern slope of Mount Rainier, and empties into the southern end of Pu ...
.
Debris flows
The glacier is one of four on Mount Rainier that are known to have released debris flows. Similar flows have stemmed from the
Nisqually,
Winthrop, and
South Tahoma glaciers as well.
The glacier released a particularly large mudflow on October 2–3, 1947, when heavy rains melted and eroded the lower part of the glacier. The meltwater transformed into a 14 billion ft
3 (40 million m
3) mudflow replete with large boulders up to 13 feet (4 m) in diameter. The flow buried Highway 706 in 28 feet (9 m) of sediment and watery debris. Deposits from the 1947 mudflow can still be seen today. Smaller flows occurred in the years 1961, 1985 and 1986.
See also
*
List of glaciers
References
{{Authority control
Glaciers of Mount Rainier
Glaciers of Washington (state)