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Published: January 19th 2010
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Compacted glacier ice
I was never mad about physics at school, but apparently the glaciers are blue as the ice is so compacted that light has a longer path to travel. Apart from some feet-dragging politicians who attended Copenhagen, there surely can't be anyone who doubts that global warming is having a huge impact on the earth. Personally I think the human race should be having a major panic about it.
In every single one of the seventeen countries we have visited over the last sixteen months, we have witnessed and spoken to locals about unusual weather patterns: our 'Tio' Manuel in Havana who was worried that the hurricane season is becoming longer and more extreme every year; bird-man Malcolm in Honduras who reported changes in bird-migration patterns; the lovely Gregorio in Futaleufu, Chile, who lamented on the flowers that now blossom two months too soon; a sudden hail storm during a bus ride through the jungle in Colombia, so freaky that the other passengers were taking photos on their phones and holding their hands out of the window to see what hail felt like. The environment is seriously messed up. And here in Patagonia, glaciers are being heavily affected.
Glacier ice holds the largest reservoir of fresh water on earth (80%) and scientists estimate that within 50 years three-quarters will have disappeared. 50 years! And why does it matter?
Well as the ice melts into the world's oceans, it becomes salt water and can't be used for drinking or crops. So yes, it is quite a big deal.
According to those environmental warriors Greenpeace, Patagonian glaciers are shrinking faster than anywhere else at a rate of 42 cubic km annually. But don't just take their word for it, check out these
photos of Glacier Grey from the NASA website - one taken by a satellite in 1986 and the other by an astronaut in 2007.
Glacier Grey is one of the 48 glaciers that is fed by the Southern Ice Field - James wrote about it in the earlier blog
'Torres del Paine - a world of its own'. The Southern Ice Field is now at a measly 4%!o(MISSING)f what it was at its peak. A chilling statistic.
Time for some good news. The Southern Ice Field also feeds the Perito Moreno glacier which is not retreating. Yipee! In fact it is advancing at a roaring rate of two metres a day. That's one mother of an ice cube.
Glacier Perito Moreno is really easy to visit from the Argentinian town of El Calafate and the site is well set up for visitors (Tip: get the afternoon bus and
Perito Moreno - a good news story
One of just 3 Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. avoid the tour bus crowds). First we opted for the close-up perspective given by a boat ride. Bobbing in the boat as close as health & safety would allow, we were ants at the foot of a skyscraper. It was blue, so very blue, and huge. An incredible wall of ice. Then we took to the extensive walkways for a different view. From the viewing platforms the glacier seemed less like a huge wall of ice and more of a massive river of ice, except the top wasn't smooth - it was covered in jagged spears. I never thought I would be so enchanted by a big lump of ice that I could sit and watch it for hours, but that is exactly what we did. Without the sound of a boat's engine, we could really hear the glacier creaking and groaning its way down the valley. The nearest sound I can liken it to is the sound of wood splitting as a tree is being felled. It was as though the glacier was alive.
As far as glaciers go, Perito Moreno is a complete show-off. Huge chunks of ice break off and noisily crash into the water below.
As the glacier advances, it dams a section of Lake Argentino. Overtime, the flowing water melts part of the ice forming a bridge. Eventually the ice bridge gets bigger and weaker until it completely collapses under its own weight. This has happened 18 times since 1917. Nothing happened at all the 90s (maybe it took offence to bright coloured leggings) but recently the ice bridge has collapsed in 2004, 2006 and lastly in July 2008. The footage of the event is spectacular - here's
a video of the 2008 rupture (3 mins), the Enya soundtrack really adds something!
Glaciers seemed to be everywhere on both sides of the Chilean-Argentinian border in Patagonia. From the unique setting of
Torres del Paine to
sailing past them through coastal fjords, we saw glaciers of all shapes and sizes and colours.
But just so the people back home aren't under the wrong impression that we spend all our days in the sunshine gazing at frozen water, here's a glacier story that no one will envy.
Setting out from Bariloche, the weather was fine. By the time the bus had reached Pampa Linda in Nahuel Haupi national park, it was lashing. It was too late to do anything but grim and bear it - we had
already paid our park entrance fee and the return bus didn't leave for another six hours. So we donned our waterproofs and set off on a 9km uphill hike to see the Ventisquero Negro (Black Glacier) of Monte Tronador (Thunder Mountain). It wasn't long till our boots were squelching with every step and our fingers were numb. We weren't alone though. A dog was following us. Well actually it was leading the way, pausing every now and again to check we were still there. For no particular reason we called him Roger.
The waterproofness of our waterproofs were really put to the test (turns out we are victims of false advertising). We were wet, cold and miserable. Pure stubbornness and dogged determination prevented us from turning around. Slowly, misery turned into lunacy and we were starting to find this situation we had put ourselves in funny. We were freezing, had no feeling in our hands or feet and it didn't seem possible to get any wetter, but at least we had Roger.
We got there. Roger disappeared. We gingerly took a couple of snaps. We heard the mountain thunder. We saw very little. We turned around. Roger reappeared.
We trudged back down the way we came behind Roger in a state of crazed misery.
Stubbornness can be a curse.
From Jess
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Andrew Church
non-member comment
It does what it says on the Tin
Jess/James, You need Gore-Tex if you need waterproof. It also comes in grades depending how wet you think you are going to get! I am an expert because of having to buy Mum a new waterproof coat! The review of the glaciers is fantastic - I felt I was there - one day. Take care, love you P.S. started the World Football book