Glacier surface 2009

Roche moutonnée emerging from the receding snout of Vadret da Tschierva, September 2009.

Narrow longitudinal crevasse near the glacier snout, looking towards the Bernina group, September 2009.

A deeply incised supraglacial stream flows down the middle of the glacier, originating at the foot of the icefall, September 2009.

Close-up view of meanders in the melt-stream. The channel walls are about 2 metres high.

Students standing near a huge moulin where the large melt-stream disappears into the glacier.

Moulin associated with a small supraglacial stream near the debris-mantled part of the glacier.

The ablated-back edge of a former deeply incised channel, superimposed upon which are meltwater runnels arranged in a dendritic (branching) manner.

Cryoconite holes with debris and organic matter at their base.

Transverse foliation, originating in the icefall, attains a near horizontal dip as seen in these longitudinal crevasses near the glacier snout.

Up glacier the transverse foliation becomes progressively steeper, as viewed in the wall of an abandoned supraglacial stream.

Associated with transverse foliation, large-scale folding (several metres amplitude) is the product of compressive deformation near the foot of the icefall.

The large 1988 rockfall on the tributary to Vadret da Tschierva, dwarfs the Swiss Alpine Club hut above the Little Ice Age moraine on the left, September 2009.