Description
Glaciers form when snow accumulates over many years and eventually compacts into ice. The weight of the ice causes the glacier to slowly flow down a mountain, cracking along the way to form crevasses. Mount Rainier’s 25 glaciers makes it the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states. The 25 glaciers have a combined area of 35 square miles. As glaciers move down the mountain, they scour the landscape leaving boulder strewn fields called moraines. The lateral moraine of the Nisqually Glacier was photographed from Paradise on the south side of Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, USA.