Vanjyakh (Fedchenko) Glacier
Interesting facts
- Between 1910 and 1913 the glacier surged forward by 800 to 1,000 m, and the following year it dammed the Balyandkiik river.
- Ice in the middle reaches moves about 250 m a year, and in places the glacier advances up to about 67 cm in a single day.
- Building the Gorbunov weather station in 1933 meant hauling about 16 tonnes of materials up to 4,169 m by camel and horse.
- During the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1959, a glaciological station operated high on the upper glacier at about 4,900 m.
- For all its size, the glacier's surface is remarkably gentle, sloping mostly at just 1.5 to 2.5 degrees.
- Its source cirque lies beneath Soviet-named summits including Paris Commune Peak (6,350 m) and 26 Baku Commissars Peak (6,848 m).
- As it retreated between 1928 and 1960, the glacier lost several former tributaries, including the Kosinenko, Ulugbek and Alert glaciers.
- Alexei Fedchenko did not discover the glacier; Oshanin chose the name partly because glaciers had especially fascinated his late friend.
- The first map of the glacier and its surroundings was drawn by the topographer I. G. Dorofeev.
Why it is worth it
The Vanjyakh Glacier, long known to the world as the Fedchenko Glacier, is the longest glacier on Earth outside the polar regions. It runs as a broad, nearly straight river of ice for about 77 km through the heart of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, covers some 700 square kilometres, and in places is close to a kilometre thick. Together with its dozens of tributaries it is estimated to hold around 144 cubic kilometres of ice, roughly a third of the volume of Lake Erie. Long dark ribbons of moraine run down its surface, marking where tributary glaciers have joined the main stream.
The glacier is born in a basin at about 6,200 metres beneath peaks approaching 7,000 metres, among them Independence Peak (formerly Revolution Peak, 6,940 m), and flows north along the eastern foot of the Academy of Sciences Range, the ridge that carries Ismoil Somoni Peak, Tajikistan's highest mountain. Some 45 glaciers belong to its system. The ice moves on a gentle gradient, travelling a couple of hundred metres a year in its middle reaches, before ending near 2,900 metres in a snout buried under rock debris. Its meltwater flows into the Muksu and ultimately into the Amu Darya basin.
The lower part of the glacier was found in 1878 by the Russian naturalist Vasily Oshanin, who named it after his late friend Alexei Fedchenko, an explorer of Central Asia who had died in the Alps in 1873. Its middle and upper reaches were first surveyed only by the German–Soviet Pamir expedition of 1928. In 1933 a weather station named after the academician Nikolai Gorbunov was built on a rock ledge beside the ice at 4,169 metres; materials were brought up by camel and horse, and the station was continuously staffed until 1995. In July 2023 the government of Tajikistan officially renamed the glacier Vanjyakh.
Getting there
The glacier lies in a remote high-mountain part of the Gorno-Badakhshan region. The nearest Tajik city is Khorugh, about 155 km away in a straight line. The nearest airport in Tajikistan is Kulob International Airport (TJU), about 233 km away; Fergana International Airport (FEG) in Uzbekistan is closer on the map, at about 183 km, but lies beyond the Alay ranges and two international borders.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Fedchenko Glacier or the Vanch-Yakh Glacier is a large glacier in the Yazgulem Range, Pamir Mountains, of north-central Gorno-Badakhshan province, Tajikistan. The glacier is long and narrow, currently extending for 77 kilometres (48 mi) and covering over 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi). It is the longest glacier in the world outside of the polar regions. The maximum thickness of the glacier is 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), and the volume of the glacier and its dozens of tributaries is estimated at 144 cubic kilometres (35 cu mi)—about a third of the volume of Lake Erie.
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