Hidden Glacier Beneath Mount Timpanogos Holds Massive Ice Reserve
University of Utah researchers mapped a buried glacier under Mount Timpanogos, finding it is about 83% ice and stores enough water to fill roughly 600 Olympic swimming pools.
A University of Utah team used high-precision gravity surveys to probe the interior of the Timpanogos Rock Glacier beneath Mount Timpanogos, producing a 3-D model via Bayesian inversion. The analysis indicates the formation is roughly 83% ice, encompassing about 1.5 million cubic meters of frozen water—enough to fill approximately 600 Olympic swimming pools, a volume akin to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Lead author Bronson Cvijanovich explained that repeated rockfalls blanket persistent snow, preserving it as ice over thousands of years, meaning these features are active water reservoirs rather than relics of the last Ice Age.
Extending the surface-area-to-ice-volume relationship, researchers estimate Utah's rock glaciers may store about one gigaton of water, while worldwide rock glaciers could collectively contain around 48 gigatons. The findings appear in the Journal of Geophysical Research and Geophysical Research Letters and were funded by the USGS, NSF, and university research programs. This discovery uncovers a substantial, previously hidden freshwater resource in mountainous terrain.
Why it matters
It reveals a large, hidden freshwater source that could influence regional water management and climate studies.
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