Paradise Glacier is a

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#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

on the southeast flank of

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

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 ...

. It covers and contains 0.8 billion ft³ (23 million m³) with Stevens Glacier included. The glacier is bounded to the west by the Muir Snowfield, Anvil Rock and McClure Rock. There is a single extant main lobe of the glacier, ranging from to , that is connected to the larger Cowlitz Glacier. To the south, there was a smaller portion which was near the Cowlitz Rocks and the tiny Williwakas Glacier, ranging from to in elevation and containing the

Paradise Ice Caves The Paradise Ice Caves (also known as the Paradise Glacier Caves) were a system of interconnected glacier caves located within Mount Rainier's Paradise Glacier in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly k ...

until the 1990s. This smaller lobe melted between 2004 and 2006. Meltwater from the glacier drains into the

Cowlitz River The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens. The Cowlitz has a ...

Glacier loss

The Williwakas was declared a dead glacier in the 1930s and the ice caves were lost in the 1980s. In a June 2023 report from the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

(NPS), the Stevens Glacier was removed from the NPS glacier list for lack of ice flow and size.

References

{{Authority control Glaciers of Mount Rainier Glaciers of Washington (state)

Glacier loss

See also

References