Utah mountain ranges may store a billion tons of hidden ice

Key Points:

• University of Utah geologists have used a novel gravimeter-based technique to image the 3D ice body within the large Timpanogos Rock Glacier, revealing it to be 83% ice and containing 1.5 million cubic meters of frozen water.
• The Timpanogos Rock Glacier alone stores enough ice to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools, comparable in volume to the largest pyramid at Giza, highlighting significant hidden water resources beneath Utah's mountains.
• Researchers developed a new mathematical model showing that rock glaciers gain mass as rockfalls bury persistent snow, and these glaciers formed after the last Ice Age rather than being remnants from it.
• By analyzing 836 rock glaciers in Utah and establishing a relationship between surface area and ice volume, scientists estimate that the world's 50,000 known rock glaciers contain approximately 48 gigatons of water, with Utah's rock glaciers holding about 1 gigaton.
• This research underscores the importance of rock glaciers as substantial freshwater reservoirs, which have been largely unaccounted for in water resource assessments due to their hidden ice content beneath rocky debris.