Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Tasman Glacier

Image from wikipedia

The Tasman Glacier, located on the South Island of New Zealand, is approximately 600 metres deep and 27 kilometres long.

Now calving as it melts, this river of ice is flanked by a terminal lake that is growing ever larger. On each side of the lake, moraines soar 100 m in the air, showing the outline of the glacier as it was just over a century ago.

At the "working end" of the glacier, where it melts and refreezes on a regular basis, a layer of rubble lies on top of the ice. This provides some insulation from the sun and inhibits the melting process to some degree. However, the glacier continues to lose height and drop a whole array of weird-shaped icebergs into its terminal lake.

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