Found in the Gran Sasso d'Italia mountain group, it lies just beneath the Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennines.

With the disappearance of the Corral de la Veleta glacier in the Sierra Nevada in 1913, "Il Calderone" became one of Europe's southernmost known glaciers (42°28′N, 13°33′E), being slightly to the north only compared to Snezhnika (latitude of 41°46′09″ N) and Banski Suhodol Glaciers in Pirin Mountain in Bulgaria.

The discovery of a number of small glaciers in the Accursed Mountains in 2009 seemed to threaten Calderone's positions.

In 1998 Italian glaciologists at a symposium in L'Aquila predicted that the Calderone would vanish within a couple decades.

By the end of August 2014, the volume of residual ice was larger than during the same period in 2013.