Response time of Ghiacciaio del Nordend (Valle Anzasca, Western Alps) to the climatic fluctuations

Abstract

The geographic position of Ghiacciaio del Nordend and the history of its name are shortly reviewed. Then the map and picture sources concerning this glacier are carefully examined. They enable the reconstruction, at least qualitative, of the evolution of Ghiacciaio del Nordend, synchronous with that of Ghiacciaio del Belvedere, in which, at given time intervals, the investigated glacier was used to confluence. The available documentation, mainly by Monterin and Sacco, as well as the measurements carried out at the terminus by Demaria and others, during the yearly glacier surveying organized by the Comitato Glaciologico Italiano, starting from 1925, are later discussed. The researches carried out by VAW/ETH on Belvedere and Nordend glaciers are also reviewed, as strongly documenting the recent fluctuations of Ghiacciaio del Nordend. The climatic data available for this Alps area are quite poor, so that the glacier response to climate can just be guessed as order of magnitude. The estimated glacier response time to the climatic fluctuations is then checked on the base of a simple empirical formula, the result of which is in substantial agreement. Eventually a comparison of the response time of Nordend, Belvedere and Nord delle Locce glaciers is attempted; it clearly results the response time dependence on the physical parameters which characterize each of the three glaciers, under the same climatic conditions.