Snezhnika ( bg, Снежника 'the snow patch') 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 ...

et in the

Pirin , photo=Pirin-mountains-Bansko.jpg , photo_caption=Pirin scenery in winter , country= Bulgaria, , parent= , geology= granite, gneiss, marble, limestone , area_km2=2585 , range_coordinates = , length_km=80 , length_orientation= north-s ...

Mountains of Bulgaria, a remnant of the former Vihren Glacier.Grunewald, p. 129. The glacieret lies at an elevation between and in the deep

Golemiya Kazan Golemiya Kazan ( bg, Големия казан) is one of the two cirques that form an area called ''Kazanite'' (the Cauldrons), situated in Bulgaria's Pirin mountain range. ''Kazanite'' are located below the two highest summits Vihren (2,914 ...

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

at the steep northern foot of

Vihren Vihren ( ) is the highest peak of Bulgaria's Pirin Mountains. Reaching , it is Bulgaria's second and the Balkans' third highest, after Musala and Mount Olympus. Although due to the karst topography Vihren is deprived of lakes and streams, a numbe ...

(), Pirin's highest summit. Due to the relatively easy access and its location along a popular hiking trail, Snezhnika is Bulgaria's most famous glacieret. Snezhnika has an average area of and in 2006 it had a volume of . Snezhnika's size varies in length from 70 to 100 metres (west to east) and in width from 40 to 90 metres (north to south). Its

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 ...

is 8–11 m thick at the base and its snow cover, which is mostly fed by

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

snow, can be as deep as 20 metres in March and April. Snezhnika's

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

of 41°46′09″ N makes it the

southernmost glacial mass in Europe The southernmost persistent glacial masses in Europe are mainly small glaciers, glacierets, and perennial firn fields and patches, located in the highest mountains of the three big southern European peninsulas - the Balkan, the Apennine, and the I ...

;http://geoproblems.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2013_12/7_gachev.pdf the nearby

Banski Suhodol Glacier The Banski Suhodol Glacier ( bg, Ледника в Бански Суходол, ''Lednika v Banski Suhodol'') is a small glacier (glacieret) in the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria. It lies below the Kutelo peak (2908 m.) in the upper Banski Suhodol V ...

below

Koncheto Koncheto ( , ) is a name given to a knife-edge ridge in the Pirin Mountains in Bulgaria, at an elevation of approximately 2,810 metres, between the peaks Banski Suhodol (2,884 meters) and Kutelo (2,908 metres). There are steep slopes on either ...

, although larger, is slightly to the north. Lednik golemia kazan IMG 9887

Snezhnika lies in an east-facing hollow adjacent to the almost vertical north wall of Vihren and is surrounded on three sides by a

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

or moraine-like rock debris. The north wall of Vihren supplies Snezhnika with avalanche snow. The strong shade of the high vertical wall and the high

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...

of its white marble as well as the

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

ified bottom of the hollow provide suitable conditions for

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

. Snezhnika has existed continuously since at least 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. Ma ...

, when it presumably reached a maximum area of 0.93 hectares, and its age is estimated at more than 500 years. While its size varies greatly from year to year, it has remained relatively stable from the mid-20th through to the 21st century, despite low precipitation and a relatively high and increasing annual mean temperature.Grunewald, p. 129. Snezhnika exhibits less variability in size than the glaciers and glacierets of

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

(below

Maja Jezercë Jezerca Peak ( sq, Maja Jezercë) is the highest peak in the Dinaric Alps, the fifth highest in Albania and the sixth highest in the Balkans, standing at above sea level. It is the 28th most prominent mountain peak in Europe, and is regarded ...

) and

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

(

Debeli Namet Debeli Namet is a small glacier below Mount Šljeme () in the Durmitor massif, Montenegro. Geography This glacier exists well below the true snowline and is sustained by avalanching snow. Results of recent investigations on the Debeli Namet gl ...

), which lie at a lower altitude and rely on heavier precipitation. Otherwise, Snezhnika has a very comparable topography to these and to the

Calderone glacier The Calderone glacier ( it, Ghiacciaio del Calderone) is a glacier located in the Apennine Mountains in Abruzzo, Italy. Found in the Gran Sasso d'Italia mountain group, it lies just beneath the Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennines. Wit ...

of the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

. The presence of perennial snow in Pirin has been documented since the 1920s. The first in-depth study of Snezhnika dates to 1957–61 and was conducted by Vladimir Popov of the

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; bg, Българска академия на науките, ''Balgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated ''БАН'') is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy ...

's Institute of Geography. Further research was done by a team under Karsten Grunewald of the Landscape Research Centre in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, from 1994 to 2007.Gachev et al. (2009), p. 18.

Footnotes

References

* * * {{cite journal, last=Grunewald, first=Karsten, author2=Jörg Scheithauer, date=2010, title=Europe's southernmost glaciers: response and adaptation to climate change, journal=Journal of Glaciology, publisher=

International Glaciological Society The International Glaciological Society (IGS) was founded in 1936 to provide a focus for individuals interested in glaciology, practical and scientific aspects of snow and ice. It was originally known as the "Association for the Study of Snow an ...

, volume=56, issue=195, pages=129–142, issn=0022-1430, doi=10.3189/002214310791190947, bibcode=2010JGlac..56..129G, doi-access=free Glaciers of Bulgaria Pirin Landforms of Blagoevgrad Province