Glaciers are perennial ice masses that are large enough to experience flow. Gravitationally driven ice motion occurs through three different mechanisms:
All three processes are believed to be active in the Canadian Rockies, though there are few studies of glacier dynamics in the Rockies. Where they have been measured, typical flow rates are on the order of tens of metres per year (eg: 30 meters per year, near the snow‐coach turnaround on the Athabasca Glacier; Paterson, 1964). Small cirque glaciers will move at just a few meters per year.
While there is good information about the number and area of glaciers in the Rockies, little is known about ice thickness or volume. Ice thickness estimates require time‐ and labour‐intensive ice radar surveys, executed through the towing of an ice radar or low frequency ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) system along the glacier surface, or airborne radar surveys.
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