The Trift Glacier (german: Triftgletscher) is a long

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 ...

(2005) in the

Urner Alps The Uri Alps (also known as ''Urner Alps'', german: Urner Alpen) are a mountain range in Central Switzerland and part of the Western Alps. They extend into the cantons of Obwalden, Valais, Bern, Uri and Nidwalden and are bordered by the Bernese Al ...

near

Gadmen Gadmen is a former municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014, the former municipality of Gadmen merged into the municipality of Innertkirchen.

, in the extreme east of the canton

Berne german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Morphology

In 1973 glacier was 5.75 km long, 3 km wide at the top and around 500 m wide at it tongue. Overall it covered an area of including glacier sides.
Triftgletscher Gadmen, Schweizerisches Gletschermessnetz
Since the end of 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 ...

, the Trift Glacier is shrinking. The valley in which lake '' Triftsee'' is today used to be filled by a large mass of ice well into the 20th century. In the 1990s small puddles of melt water began to form at the

glacier tongue An ice tongue is a long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline. An ice tongue forms when a valley glacier moves very rapidly (relative to surrounding ice) out into the ocean or a lake. They can gain mass from water freezing at t ...

and gradually became larger. In the hot summer of 2003, the lake quickly grew and the glacier tongue sank into the melt water and dissolved in it, which led to a shrinkage of the glacier of more than 136 m within a year. Since 1861, the glacier has shrunk a total of 2771 meters.

Tourist attractions

At an altitude of 2520 meters above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

is the '' Trifthutte '', a

mountain hut A mountain hut is a building located high in the mountains, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organization d ...

of the '' Schweizer Alpen-Club (SAC) '' that was only accessible via the glacier tongue. Due to the melting of the glacier, in 2004 people were forced to build a bridge, the '' Triftbrücke '' to reach this hut.

References

External links

Swiss glacier monitoring network
Glaciers of the Alps Glaciers of the canton of Bern GTrift {{bern-glacier-stub

Morphology

Tourist attractions

See also

References

External links