Alpine glacier disappearance

 

The literature these days is full of "before and after" images illustrating glacier disappearances all over the world.  It has become an epidemic........ and thank goodness people are taking note.

The above example comes from the Alps, with a reconstruction below showing the assumed glacier extent at the time of the Late Glacial maximum, around 12,500 years ago.

I'm intrigued by the lessons we can learn from close examinations of the deglaciated areas.  If you zoom in on the top photo you can see a vast expanse of "clean rock surfaces" in areas that were at one time the accumulation zones of small glaciers feeding to the Aletsch Gletscher.  These areas do not experience a great deal of erosion, although to the left there are traces of an incipient cirque, cut where ice has been accelerating through an icefall. Ice covering is not the same as ice moulding or ice streaming, and I'm wondering what lessons can be learned here which may be of use in interpreting the glacial features of West Wales........