Suldener Gletscherbaum

The Upper “Sulden“ valley is an area with a great number of glaciers. 14 of them cover an area of about 11.3 square kilometres. The by far largest of them is the „Suldenferner“ with an area of almost 6.5 square kilometres. The extent of each of the other glaciers is distinctly below 1 square kilometre. The masses of ice on the western side of the valley are outstanding, even within all the glaciers of the eastern part of the Alps. They are glacier tongues of the „Suldenferner“, of the „End-of-the-World“ glacier as well as of the Lower and Upper „Maritferner“, their lowest part being covered with a thick layer of detritus.

This detritus, which prevents ice from melting, stems from the huge rock faces of the „Ortler“, the „Zebru“ and the „Königspitze“, mountains which date from the Mesozoic era. Therefore these glacier tongues reach further down (below 2,500 metres) than those of the other glaciers (at best 2,800 metres). These deviations are reflected in the height of the ridges on both sides of the valley, with those on the western side being about 300 to 400 metres higher.



In the past the „Sudengletscher“ changed its size several times. In 1818 it even moved so far down that parts of Sulden had to be evacuated. The last advance of the glacier came to a stop in 1987. Since then it has been withdrawing slowly.

The larch exhibited here was discovered in 1996. By means of radiocarbon analyse its precise age could be determined and it was found out that more than 1,000 years ago it was kind of „run over“. To be allowed to log this cache, please send me the answers to the following three questions, whose answers can be found in the charts on the spot.

1. When was the tree „run over“?
2. Who determined the age of the tree?
3. How many cold periods could be detected?