Siachen Glacier The Siachen glacier lies in the extreme north-central part of Jammu and Kashmir near the border of India and Tibet. It has a length of about 72 km and is the largest glacier in the world outside the polar regions. The Siachen glacier is located on the north-facing slopes of the Karakoram range. It feeds the Mutzgah or Shaksgam River that flows parallel to the Karakoram range before entering into Tibet.

Siachen glacier system A Panorama by Serbjeet Singh Credit: Karamjeet Singh

The Siachen glacier lies in a vast trough more than 2 km wide. The sides of the glacier are strewn with rocks and boulders. The central part of this glacier, however, is a vast snowfield.

Numerous icefalls have been formed at the junction of small valley glaciers and the trunk glacier. Lateral moraines occur at the confluence of larger tributary glaciers and the trunk glacier. The side walls of the glacial trough are steeply sloping. Avalanches roll down these slopes quite often, particularly in winter.

This glacier encompasses a vast are in winter. There are virtually no signs of recession. This tract is more or less devoid of a vegetative cover due to its high elevation as well as its latitude. The bulk of the total annual precipitation is in the form of snow.

The Siachen glacier can be approached via Skardu in Ladakh.

To the east of the Siachen lies the Rimo glacier group, a group of three glaciers -- North , Central and South -- located at an altitude of between 6,000 and 7000 m above sea level. Between them, these glaciers have almost 700 square kilometers of ice which at places is 100 m deep. Thus the Siachen glacier empire contains about 2,000 square kilometers of ice surface and almost 200 cubic kilometers of ice.