Glacier of Unteraar

The glacier of Unteraar ( Unteraargletscher in German) is in Suisse in the Canton of Bern. It is largest of the two glaciers at the origin of the Aar, the other glacier being the Glacier of Oberaar. The glacier of Unteraar is resulting from the junction between the glaciers of Finsteraar (to the foot of the Finsteraarhorn) and from the Lauteraar (close to the Lauteraarhorn). It extends on approximately 6 kilometers towards the west in direction from the collar from Grimsel before leading to the Lac of Grimsel.

Now covered with moraines and rock remains because of the frequent stone falls on the slopes, the glacier was passably withdrawn during the last century so that it is not visible any more since the surroundings close to the collar of Grimsel. During the period Baroque, it belonged to the most famous panoramas of Switzerland.

Glaciology

In 1827, it became one of the first subjects of study for the Glaciologie, a science which was with its stammerings. Franz Josef Hugi then the team carried out by Louis Agassiz were interested in it and came several years from continuation on the glacier in order to examine it. The scientists remained as of 1840 under the “hotel of Neuchâtelois”, an enormous block of rock in the middle of the moraine and which fell later into the lake from Grimsel. The rock had already been the subject of a table, DER gross Steintisch auf dem Lauteraargletscher , by Caspar Wolf about 1774. A 20 minute old documentary film on the life of Agassiz in the middle of the glacier of Unteraar should leave at the end of 2007.

Ecology

A project of raising of the stopping of Grimsel is disputed by the ecologist organizations of which WWF. The rise in 23 meters planned for the stopping would cause the increase in the level of the lake and the flood of the zone close to the language of the glacier (the proglacial margin) on nearly one square kilometer. This part of the valley includes/understands old forests of arolles and marshy zones with a particular ecosystem. The canton of Bern however approved the in March 2007 project because of the energy needs of the country, allowing an additional annual production of 20 gWh.

The glacier of Lauteraar belongs to a zone used for the drives of shootings of DCA by the Swiss Armée. The latter carries out operations of cleaning regularly. Incidentally, these measurements prevent that metal remains do not remain on the glacier, and that in the long term they do not lead on the upper part of the glacier of Unteraar.

Evolution

References

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