COORDINATES: 53° 14' N / 158° 49' E
Photo taken by Ya. D. Muravyov in September 1984.
COORDINATES: 53° 14' N / 158° 49' E
Photo taken by Ya. D. Muravyov in September 1984.
The valley-type glacier is located on the eastern slope of Avachinskiy Volcano in the Vostochny Range of Kamchatka Peninsula and extends from 2,050 to 870 m a.s.l. Its surface area is 1.80 km2 and the exposure is S. Annual mean air temperature at the equilibrium line of the glacier (around 1,300 m a.s.l.) is -3.5 °C. The glacier is thought to be temperate, perhaps with a cold surface layer in the upper parts of the ablation area. Average annual precipitation as measured at 1,850 m a.s.l. is about 2,100 mm. The main peculiarities of the glacier are the sub-lengthwise orientation of the equilibrium line and a zone covered by volcanic ash in the upper reaches of the glacier, where mass balance remains zero.
Mass balance was negative in both reported years, with rather slight deviations from its norm. In 1993/94 both accumulation and ablation exceeded their averages by more than 10%, and mass loss equaled 0.67 m water equivalent. In 1994/95 winter precipitation was about 30 % below the average at Petrapavlovsk-Kamchatskiy weather station, but due to the cool summer ablation was also very low. As a result the glacier lost 0.23 m water equivalent of its mass.
