page_title: Glacier Blanc
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Glacier Blanc / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le torrent du Glacier Blanc (Hautes-Alpes) à sa sortie au front du glacier English: The river of the "Glacier Blanc" (France) on the frontside of the glacier.
context_page_description: The Glacier Blanc is a glacier in the French département of Hautes-Alpes. Its name derives from the fact that – unlike the nearby Glacier Noir – its surface appears pristinely white due to an absence of morainic debris.
  A glacier that is largely free of such moraines is generally described in French as a glacier blanc.
context_section_description: The Glacier Blanc begins on the northern slopes of the most southwesterly of the four-thousanders in the Alps, the 4,102 m high Barre des Écrins. It is separated from the Glacier Noir to the south by the crest of Crête de l'Encoula (or Crête de l'Encula), that runs from the Barre des Écrins to the Pointe du Serre Subeyran. The upper part of the glacier is sometimes named Glacier de l'Enc(o)ula after this arête; on several older maps, this name is used for the whole glacier.
  With its 5.9 km-long tongue (in 2002), the Glacier Blanc is the longest glacier in the Massif des Écrins and the largest in the southern French Alps. Its area of 5.34 km² (2002) is not, however, as great as that of the Glacier de la Girose and the Glacier du Mont-de-Lans, which form a common system. The Glacier Blanc is a typical valley glacier, which initially runs in a curve towards the northeast below the Barre, before its tongue turns southeast, becoming an icefall. Its average incline is about 30%, but it is flatter in its central section than on the north slope of the Barre des Écrins or in the icefall of its lower section.
  The glacier is bounded on its orographically left-hand side by, inter alia, the summits of the Roche Faurio (3,730 m), Pic de Neige Cordier (3,614 m) and the Montagne des Agneaux (3,664 m). The Crête de l'Encoula forms the southern boundary, running from the Barre des Écrins over Barre Noir (3,661 m), Pointe Mettrier (3,664 m) and Pointe de la Grande Sagne (3,660 m) to the Pointe du Serre Subeyran (3,472 m). Between the peaks that surround the glacial basin are smaller side glaciers that feed the main stream.
  In its centre section, the main stream (excluding side glaciers) of the Glacier Blanc is about 800 to 1000 metres wide. The greatest depth of ice occurs at the Refuge des Écrins where it is up to 250 metres deep, some 30 metres less than it was in 1985. The glacier flows at a speed of around 40 metres per year in its central section (in the mid-1980s it moved at 50 m/yr) and about 30 metres per year near its snout. Its reaction time, i.e. the time that elapses before the foot of the glacier advances or retreats due to major changes in conditions in the accumulation zone, is about 6 years in the case of the Glacier Blanc. From its head at over 4,000 m high to its foot, currently (2010) at about 2,400 m (2002: 2,315 m), the Glacier Blanc descends through a height of around 1,600 metres.
  The firn line on the Glacier Blanc, which separates the accumulation zone from the ablation zone, lies on the northern slopes at a height of about 2,750 m and on the southern flanks at about 2,950 m. The glacier's mass balance, an indicator of its health, has not been fully investigated.
  
  The Glacier Blanc drains via the Torrent du Glacier Blanc, the Gyr, the Gyronde, the Durance, and finally the  Rhône into the Mediterranean Sea.
caption: The meltwater exit of the Glacier Blanc
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