Paradise is a cave system in the Paradis Stevens Glacier , on the southeastern slope of Rainier Volcano, in the Cascade Mountains (USA).
| Paradise | |
|---|---|
 Cave in 1925 | |
| Location | |
| A country |
|
| State | Washington |
Located in Mount Rainier National Park . The largest cave in the world in a glacier. It was formed in dead (still) ice at an altitude of about 2000 m. The length of the cave galleries varies, it depends on the number of destroyed passages, the speed of the retreat of the edge of the glacier, the appearance of new galleries. Sometimes disappearing galleries may reappear after heavy snowfalls. In the 1970s, the length of the cave reached 13 km, and subsequently it was reduced. Given the galleries that existed earlier and disappeared, their maximum total length reached 24 km. The cave arose due to the movement of streams of water and air heated by the outlets of hot volcanic gases. The vaults of the galleries are semicircular, with debris at the bottom.