Ruth Glacier
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Ruth 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 ...
in
Denali National Park and Preserve Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is an American national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. The park and contiguous preserve ...
in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
. Its upper reaches are approximately 3 vertical miles below the summit of
Denali Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. With a topographic prominence of and a topographic isolation of , Denali is the thir ...
. The glacier's "Great Gorge" is one mile wide, and drops almost 2,000 feet over 10 miles, with
crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pie ...
s along the surface. Above the surface on both sides are 4,900-foot
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
cliffs. From the top of the cliffs to the bottom of the glacier is a height exceeding that of the
Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...
. Ruth Glacier moves at a rate of three feet per day and was measured to be 4,000 feet thick in 1983. Surrounding the Ruth Gorge are many mountains of the
Alaska Range The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 600-mile-long (950 km) mountain range in the southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest endSources differ as to the exact delineation of the Alaska Range. ThBoar ...
, including the
Mooses Tooth The Moose's Tooth (or simply Moose's Tooth, Mooses Tooth) is a rock peak on the east side of the Ruth Glacier, Ruth Gorge in the Central Alaska Range, 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Denali. Despite its relatively low elevation, it is a diffic ...
,
Mount Dickey Mount Dickey is a peak on the west side of the Ruth Gorge in the Central Alaska Range of mountains, 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Denali and 4 miles (6 km) southwest of The Moose's Tooth. Despite its relatively low elevation, it is not ...
,
Mount Bradley Mount Bradley () is a pyramidal peak, high, at the southeast end of a ridge descending from Detroit Plateau, surmounting Znepole Ice Piedmont to the east and Dreatin Glacier to the southwest. The peak is southwest of Mount Reece in the sout ...
,
Mount Wake Mount Wake is a mountain summit located in the Alaska Range, in Denali National Park and Preserve, in Alaska, United States. It is situated on the west side of the Ruth Gorge, southeast of Denali and southwest of The Moose's Tooth. The nearest ...
, Mount Johnson, and
London Tower The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
with highly technical
ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...
and
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
climbs on their faces.


History

In 1903, the glacier was explored by physician and ethnographer
Frederick Cook Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5, 1940) was an American explorer, physician, and ethnographer who claimed to have reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. That was nearly a year before Robert Peary, who similarly clai ...
, who named it after his youngest daughter.


See also

*
List of glaciers A glacier ( ) or () is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform ...
*
Fake Peak Fake Peak is a small outcrop on a ridge beside the Ruth Glacier in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska, US, 19 miles southeast of the summit of Denali. It has been shown by Robert M. Bryce that the "summit photograph" produced by Frederick ...


References

Glaciers of Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska Glaciers of Denali National Park and Preserve Denali Glaciers of Alaska {{Alaska-glacier-stub