Debris-Covered Glaciers and Rock Glaciers

The debris-covered glaciers are observed all over the glaciation regions of the world (Alps, Antarctica, Greenland, Ants, Cascades, Rocky Mountains and ext.). The debris covered glaciers are the formations which occur as a result of the recession of normal glaciers. The debris, which can be transported easily in glacier as englacial or supraglacial during glacier advance, has to deposit over the glacier as a supraglacial layer during the recession. Once a glacier covered with a debris layer which has an enough thickness, its mass balance, motion style, energy transportation, hydrological and biological characteristics change and differentiated from the normal glacier ice. The debris-covered glaciers generally can transform to a ice-cored rock glaciers at the last stage of their formation. Because of these characteristics, it is very difficult to define the debris-covered glaciers by the experience and the information which is acquired from the bare glacier ice.