Palisade Glacier
The cirque containing the Palisade Glacier has a history of thousands of years of glaciation. The modern glacier attained its last maximum extent during the Little Ice Age, between 250 and 170 years ago (a period also known as the Matthes glaciation in the Sierra Nevada). It currently has an area of .31 sq mi (0.80 km) and the glacier is .81 mi (1.30 km) long and .50 mi (0.80 km) wide. It is located between 13,400 and 12,000 ft (4,100 and 3,700 m) and moves at a rate of 20 ft (6.1 m) per year, although it is also retreating. Palisade Glacier is one of the few glaciers in California that terminates in a proglacial lake dammed by its former moraine, turquoise-colored from the glacial powder suspended in the water. The Big Pine Lakes below the glacier are also the same color. Another feature of the glacier is a moulin, which was formed in a drought during 1977, and a bergschrund.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Palisades_%28California%29.jpg/220px-Palisades_%28California%29.jpg)