South Cascade Glacier is a large alpine glacier in the North Cascades

North Cascades

The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in Canada as the Cascade Mountains...

 of Washington, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is bordered on the east by 8,261-foot (2,518 m) Sentinel Peak, and is about 17 miles (27 km) north of Glacier Peak

Glacier Peak

Glacier Peak is the most isolated of the five major stratovolcanoes of the Cascade Volcanic Arc in Washington...

 in the Glacier Peak Wilderness

Glacier Peak Wilderness

The Glacier Peak Wilderness, created by the US Forest Service in 1960 by efforts of the , four years before the 1964 wilderness legislation of the Congress, is located within portions of Chelan County, Snohomish County, and Skagit Counties in the North Cascades of Washington...

. Meltwater from the glacier flows directly into South Cascade Lake

South Cascade Lake

South Cascade Lake is a glacial lake in Washington. It is the source of the South Fork Cascade River. It is fed directly by the meltwater of the South Cascade Glacier....

, which feeds the South Fork Cascade River

Cascade River (Washington)

The Cascade River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a tributary of the Skagit River which it joins at the city of Marblemount. It is a National Wild and Scenic River.- South Fork :...

, which is a tributary of the Skagit River

Skagit River

The Skagit River is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi long...

.

The South Cascade Glacier has been closely monitored by glaciologists

Glaciology

Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...

 studying the effects of climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

on glaciers. As of 2009, the South Cascade Glacier has lost nearly a half of its volume since 1958.