#858 Glaciarium, El Calafate, Argentina

I'm not sure if there is anything like it in the world, but the Glaciarium in El Calafate is an incredible museum of ice movements across the world. It is a popular tourist attraction, vastly overpriced, but but gets many visitors because it is so near to the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier (#872). Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but I think if you had told me I could spend hours learning about ice and glaciers, I wouldn't have believed you. We even ran out of time!

The other cool thing they have is an ice bar --
the "GlacioBar", which is really just a giant freezer in the basement of the museum with strictly controlled times and an exorbitant entry fee -- however, your 20 minute time slot includes unlimited free drinks from ice cups -- we imbibed the traditional Fernet Branca -- mint flavor was our favorite!

Here are some cool things I learned in the Glaciarium:

• Every continent has glaciers, including Africa (on Kilimanjaro), although Australia has none
• There are glaciers in the highlands of Papua New Guinea!
• The two Patagonian ice sheilds are two of the biggest areas of ice outside Antarctica, and others include Glacier Bay National Park (#989)
• Crossing the glaciers in Los Glaciares National Park has only been a very recent phenomena (in living memory).

View from outside the Ice Museum

#872 Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

In any tourist brochure of Argentina, it is likely that there will be a photo of the Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park. Perito Moreno isn't the largest glacier, nor the widest, but it's unique feature is that it buttresses up against a peninsula making it very easy to see it from above, allowing visitors to imagine how all glaciers calved valleys and lakes across the world. The other really cool thing about it is that when it hits the peninsula it forms a natural dam, causing the southern arm of Lago Argentino to be dammed and blocked from releasing its water into the main lake. Over time of course, the pressure builds up -- occasionally this breaks in a spectacular burst as the water pushes through all at once, but more often this carves a river under the glacier forming an ice-bridge (see pictures above) which eventually falls, also spectacularly, as it becomes too weak to support the weight of ice above. 

The north side of the glacier from the water -- the peninsula can be seen to the left side.

The peninsula forms a super lookout point from which to watch and hear the glacier calving - because it is a glacier that is growing, this happens often. The many kilometers of trails also hide native plants, animals and birds. We were lucky enough to see a woodpecker up close. The glacier can also be seen from air, boat (on both north and south sides of the glacier), and some visitors even walk on parts of it.

It is just one of many glaciers in Los Glaciares National Park that come from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field (shared with Chile) -- one of the largest masses of ice in the world. The glacier was named after important 19th Century Argentinian naturalist and explorer, Francisco Moreno.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier

#906 West Coast Glaciers (Te Wahipounamu), New Zealand

Fox Glacier ice cave

River emerging from Fox Glacier

People are often quite astonished to discover that New Zealand has growing glaciers -- it perhaps does not seem cold enough, but the Southern Alps provide a perfect environment for the mountain glaciers to feed the coastal ice flows that end in the rain forest not far from the ocean's edge.

Fox Glacier -- rainforest surrounding it

 

Very accessible in around an hour's walk from the main road, but surrounded by spectacular high peaks, they are a magical other-worldly place to visit. Like most other place's on New Zealand's West Coast South Island, there are minimal people living anywhere closeby allowing it to remain untouched and wild.

Franz Josef Glacier

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Glacier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Glacier

#989 Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, USA

Relief map. Source: Wikipedia

A glacier is an amazing thing to behold - centuries of collected snow and ice, piled up, a weather record like no other that is living, moving, mass that is both affected by and affects its environment, carving valleys and mountains.

Glacier Bay National Park's highest mountain, Mt Fairweather.

What's amazing about Glacier Bay National Park (not to be confused with Glacier National Park in Montana), is the sheer number of glaciers dotted in and out of the fjords and mountains near Juneau, Alaska. A national park since 1925, and later enlarged to include other park areas, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. What would have been amazing to see is the difference between the turn of the 20th Century and now -- in 100 or so years, the entire bay (30 odd miles) has been carved by the glaciers whereas before it used to calve directly into the Gulf of Alaska.

GBNP includes 9 tidewater glaciers, which mean that they calve directly into the ocean -- impressive considering they began high in the mountains, and sometimes the face of the glaciers is several miles wide.

The glacial moraine left behind by a receding glacier

The long path down the valley.

A great image of a very steep glacier with a huge 'accumulation zone'

Another great way to see the glaciers is from a cruise!

A cruise ship sails past the face through the glacial shoal.

30 miles of Glacier Bay that has been created by the glaciers over the last century.

Glacier from glacier head at the top of the mountain to glacier foot or terminus, sometimes called the face.

A calving glacier -- the pattern in the water shows where it calved from and the drifting ice pieces.

The patterns and lines of crevasses showing the dirt collected as the glacier moves down the valley.

The cruise ship is dwarfed by a split glacier behind.

The green glacial lakes above Glacier Bay known as cirques.

The best way to truly appreciate it's awe-inspiring ice rivers is a flight over: I took mine from Haines.

Source of information: Wikipedia 'Glacier Bay National Park', 'Tidewater glacial cycle' and 'Glacier'

Two glaciers meet at the ocean.