Other Geological and Scientific Features
However, Griesgletscher has been rapidly retreating over the last decade - a retreat that has been monitored through extensive geological and glaciological research. The glacier, despite its size, is one of the most interesting and most widely studied in the Swiss Alps and during the last Ice Age was the source of a large tributary glacier that once fed into the main glacier that once flowed down the valley known today as Goms The glacier has a very well developed supra glacial and sub glacial drainage system, which becomes very evident during the summer months and before the recent rapid glacial retreat the glacier terminated in the man-made dam, with high ice cliffs. Surface features include glacial moraines as the glacier releases debris that has been eroded and then entrained by the glacier. The profile of the glacier is a very convex terminus, which progresses into a very gentle concave mid profile with very crevassed ice field near to the upper accumulation zone - an area which is highly dangerous and difficult to traverse.
Read more about this topic: Gries Glacier
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