by neufer » Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:44 pm
Wikipedia: El Calafate wrote:
<<El Calafate is a small town in Patagonia, Argentina. Its name is derived from a little bush with yellow flowers and dark blue berries that is very common in Patagonia: the calafate (Berberis buxifolia); the word comes from the word "calafate", which is Spanish for "caulk". El Calafate is an important tourist destination as the hub to visit different parts of the Los Glaciares National Park, including the Perito Moreno Glacier (one of the most visited in the world) and the Cerro Chaltén and Cerro Torre.
The town was officially founded in 1927 by the government of Argentina to promote settlement, but it was the creation of nearby Perito Moreno National Park in 1937 that sparked growth and the building of better road access. The gliding altitude record of 15,460 m was set near El Calafate on 30 August 2006 by Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson in their 'Perlan' high altitude research glider. The town was on the path of the total solar eclipse of July 11, 2010, occurring just before sunset.>>
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TASA wrote:
Perito Moreno glacier thrives despite global warming
<<Climate change appears to be helping Argentina's mighty Perito Moreno glacier, which is thriving in defiance of the global warming that is shrinking its peers. While most of the world's glaciers are melting away because of warmer temperatures, scientists say the ice field, known as "The White Giant", is gaining as much as three metres a day in some parts, pushed forward by heavy snowfalls in the Patagonia region.
"Glaciers don't respond solely to temperature changes," says Martin Stuefer, a Patagonian expert from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He says the area's heavy precipitation has apparently increased, combining with strong, cold Patagonian winds to reinforce the glacier. Climate change is not the same everywhere," says Stuefer. The creaking Perito Moreno is one of the largest glaciers in South America located 3000 kilometres southwest of Buenos Aires.
Scientists say nearly 90% of the glaciers in Antarctica and Patagonia - at the southern tip of South America - are melting quickly. The same is happening in the Arctic, the Andes, the Alps, the Himalayas and elsewhere in response to climate change linked to human activity. The average melting rate of the world's mountain glaciers has doubled since the year 2000, say the Environment Programme and the World Glacier Monitoring Service in a recent report. Melting glaciers threaten to cause rising sea levels and dry up steady sources of fresh water that people now depend on for farming, drinking and hydropower.
But glaciers are also affected by other factors such as snowfalls, winds, altitude and shade, and the Perito Moreno is among the few resisting the broad trend. "A small percentage seems to be doing strange things," says David Vaughan, a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist and member of the United Nations climate panel. "The odd 13% are either stable or advancing a little."
There are limits to the Perito Moreno's aggressive advance. It periodically reaches as far forward as it can toward the Magallanes Peninsula and then sheds a large section of its front in a spectacular phenomena known as "la ruptura" - the rupture.>>
Source: ABC Science
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Wikipedia: Perito Moreno Glacier wrote:
<<The Perito Moreno Glacier is a glacier located in the Los Glaciares National Park in the south west of Santa Cruz province, Argentina. The 250 km2 ice formation, and 30 km (19 mi) in length, is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This icefield is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres wide, with an average height of 74 m above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres.
Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped "Lago Argentino" ("Argentine Lake") forming a natural dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. With no escape route, the water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by the height of the dammed water finally breaks the ice barrier holding it back, in a spectacular rupture event. This dam/rupture cycle is not regular and it recurs naturally at any frequency between once a year to less than once a decade.
The glacier first ruptured in 1917, taking with it an ancient forest of arrayán (Luma apiculata) trees. The last rupture occurred in July 2008, and previously in 2006, 2004, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1977, 1975, 1972, 1970, 1966, 1963, 1960, 1956, 1953, 1952, 1947, 1940, 1934 and 1917. It ruptures, on average, about every four to five years.
Due to its size and accessibility, Perito Moreno is one of the major tourist drawcards to southern Patagonia. It is less than two hours by bus from El Calafate, and many tour companies run daily visits. A large visitor centre at the site features a walking circuit which allows both faces, and the surface of the glacier to be seen. In recent years, trekking tours on the ice have gained popularity. The two standard tours are a "mini-trekking" option, consisting of a short walk of about an hour and a half, and a "big ice" version, which is usually about five hours. Tour companies generally provide crampons to customers.>>
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[quote="[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Calafate]Wikipedia: El Calafate[/url]"]
<<El Calafate is a small town in Patagonia, Argentina. Its name is derived from a little bush with yellow flowers and dark blue berries that is very common in Patagonia: the calafate (Berberis buxifolia); the word comes from the word "calafate", which is Spanish for "caulk". El Calafate is an important tourist destination as the hub to visit different parts of the Los Glaciares National Park, including the Perito Moreno Glacier (one of the most visited in the world) and the Cerro Chaltén and Cerro Torre.
The town was officially founded in 1927 by the government of Argentina to promote settlement, but it was the creation of nearby Perito Moreno National Park in 1937 that sparked growth and the building of better road access. The gliding altitude record of 15,460 m was set near El Calafate on 30 August 2006 by Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson in their 'Perlan' high altitude research glider. The town was on the path of the total solar eclipse of July 11, 2010, occurring just before sunset.>>[/quote]------------------------------------------------------
[quote="[url=http://www.travel-amazing-southamerica.com/forums/argentina/197-perito-moreno-glacier-thrives-despite-global-warming.html]TASA[/url]"]
Perito Moreno glacier thrives despite global warming
<<Climate change appears to be helping Argentina's mighty Perito Moreno glacier, which is thriving in defiance of the global warming that is shrinking its peers. While most of the world's glaciers are melting away because of warmer temperatures, scientists say the ice field, known as "The White Giant", is gaining as much as three metres a day in some parts, pushed forward by heavy snowfalls in the Patagonia region.
"Glaciers don't respond solely to temperature changes," says Martin Stuefer, a Patagonian expert from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He says the area's heavy precipitation has apparently increased, combining with strong, cold Patagonian winds to reinforce the glacier. Climate change is not the same everywhere," says Stuefer. The creaking Perito Moreno is one of the largest glaciers in South America located 3000 kilometres southwest of Buenos Aires.
Scientists say nearly 90% of the glaciers in Antarctica and Patagonia - at the southern tip of South America - are melting quickly. The same is happening in the Arctic, the Andes, the Alps, the Himalayas and elsewhere in response to climate change linked to human activity. The average melting rate of the world's mountain glaciers has doubled since the year 2000, say the Environment Programme and the World Glacier Monitoring Service in a recent report. Melting glaciers threaten to cause rising sea levels and dry up steady sources of fresh water that people now depend on for farming, drinking and hydropower.
But glaciers are also affected by other factors such as snowfalls, winds, altitude and shade, and the Perito Moreno is among the few resisting the broad trend. "A small percentage seems to be doing strange things," says David Vaughan, a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist and member of the United Nations climate panel. "The odd 13% are either stable or advancing a little."
There are limits to the Perito Moreno's aggressive advance. It periodically reaches as far forward as it can toward the Magallanes Peninsula and then sheds a large section of its front in a spectacular phenomena known as "la ruptura" - the rupture.>>
Source: ABC Science[/quote]------------------------------------------------------
[quote="[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier]Wikipedia: Perito Moreno Glacier[/url]"]
<<The Perito Moreno Glacier is a glacier located in the Los Glaciares National Park in the south west of Santa Cruz province, Argentina. The 250 km2 ice formation, and 30 km (19 mi) in length, is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This icefield is the world's third largest reserve of fresh water.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres wide, with an average height of 74 m above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres.
[float=right][img3="Two weeks prior to rupture"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/SantaCruz-PeritoMoreno-P2160295b.jpg[/img3][/float]Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped "Lago Argentino" ("Argentine Lake") forming a natural dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. With no escape route, the water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by the height of the dammed water finally breaks the ice barrier holding it back, in a spectacular rupture event. This dam/rupture cycle is not regular and it recurs naturally at any frequency between once a year to less than once a decade.
The glacier first ruptured in 1917, taking with it an ancient forest of arrayán (Luma apiculata) trees. The last rupture occurred in July 2008, and previously in 2006, 2004, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1977, 1975, 1972, 1970, 1966, 1963, 1960, 1956, 1953, 1952, 1947, 1940, 1934 and 1917. It ruptures, on average, about every four to five years.
Due to its size and accessibility, Perito Moreno is one of the major tourist drawcards to southern Patagonia. It is less than two hours by bus from El Calafate, and many tour companies run daily visits. A large visitor centre at the site features a walking circuit which allows both faces, and the surface of the glacier to be seen. In recent years, trekking tours on the ice have gained popularity. The two standard tours are a "mini-trekking" option, consisting of a short walk of about an hour and a half, and a "big ice" version, which is usually about five hours. Tour companies generally provide crampons to customers.>>[/quote]------------------------------------------------------