65) Astazú

The Astazu glacier is located on the Estaubé slope, east of the Hourquette de Païlla, on the north-northeast face at the base of the wall linking the Pineta Peak (2,859 m), the Tucarroya Breach (2,666 m) and the Gran Astazu (3,071 m). During the Little Ice Age, it must have covered an area of more than 14 hectares. Its horizontal rather than longitudinal layout made it difficult to identify signs of activity for many years, until the 1990s, when its glacial dynamics ceased and it became a helero.Since 2017, its main body has tended to split into two fragments, right at the base of the corridors that feed it with snow. The smaller fragment is located to the west and covered with eroded material. Currently, the ice still retains the bevelled structure characteristic of heleros. The other units, to the east of what was the main body, have gradually disappeared, with the exception of the one attached to the north face of Pico de Pineta. This is in the form of a helero and a residual remnant buried in the Brecha de Tucarroya. The entire complex covers an area of 1.6 hectares of glacial ice.

Este aparato glaciar pertenece al siguiente macizo:

I) Gavarnie Massif

Aragón
12 glaciers

Galería de imágenes

The Astazú cirque (65) in 2007. Gran and Petit Astazú (1 and 2) and Brecha de Tucarroya (16). In the background, the summit of Cilindro de Marboré (15) and Marboré (3), the Upper Icefall (58) and Lower Glacier of Monte Perdido (59), and the Central Icefall of Marboré (63), all part of the Monte Perdido Massif. (Jordi Camins).

In the foreground, the Astazú glacier sector during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. On the right, the main glacier. In the background, the sector that was once the East Marboré Glacier or Cilindro Glacier. (Georges Ledormeur).

In 1986, on the right is the Astazú Glacier. In the centre is the Tucarroya Gap and various ice fields. On the left is the ice field attached to the wall of Pico de Pineta. (Gabriel Baena).

In 2017, in Astazú's ice field at the base of the ridges that feed it, tending to fragment. Of note are the moraine at the ice front and the tendency to become covered, especially in the western sector. (Jordi Camins).