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Montevideo, March 29th 2024 - 00:39 UTC

 

 

Glacier prepares new dramatic spectacle.

Saturday, October 30th 2004 - 21:00 UTC
Full article

The vast Perito Moreno glacier that lost an enormous wall of ice in a spectacular collapse in March is showing signs that another section could eventually break free, the La Nación newspaper reported yesterday.

A 60-metre wall of ice broke off the Perito Moreno glacier and crashed into a Patagonian lake earlier year, the first large-scale calving witnessed since 1986. Water pressure eroding the glacier as it expanded toward the coast caused the thunderous collapse, experts said.

The 3,000-year-old glacier, known as the "White Giant," has since expanded to reach the same coastline again, raising the possibility of another collapse, experts said.

"The glacier came to rest against the coast three weeks ago," Carlos Corvalán, the head of Argentina's Los Glaciares Park, told the paper.

The potential collapse could come as soon as early as next year as the glacier thaws in the Argentine summer heat.

Perito Moreno is the main attraction in the park, some 3,220 kilometres southwest of Buenos Aires.

Some 63 Patagonian glaciers ? some blinding white and others a deep blue ? cover a remote region totalling 16,900 square kilometres of rivers, lakes and fjords. Each year, thousands of tourists visit the glaciers.

Categories: Mercosur.

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