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Chile: Glacier rupture filmed by tourists

2022-09-14T16:52:18.507Z


Unusually high temperatures and heavy rain have caused a large glacier in Chile's Queulat National Park to calve. Tourists filmed how the ice masses fell into a river.


Expand sectionVideo Transcript

These recordings are from Queulat National Park in Chile.

A 200 meter high glacier calved there and the ice landed in an adjacent river.

Calving is the breaking off of large masses of ice from a glacier.

Tourists filmed the natural spectacle - which is a consequence of climate change.

RAUL CORDERO, University of Santiago de Chile

This part of Patagonia experienced a heat wave just before calving was recorded.

Temperatures were abnormal for this time of year, rising from zero degrees Celsius to as high as 15 degrees Celsius.

A new airflow was also registered.

This is warm, humid air from the tropics that, when it meets the topography of the Andes and Patagonia, forms large clouds and emits liquid precipitation.

Triggered by heat waves and heavy rain, similar phenomena can now be observed more and more frequently - not only in Chile, but worldwide.

RAUL CORDERO, University of Santiago de Chile

One consequence of global warming is that many glaciers, and particularly unstable glacier walls, are becoming destabilized.

For example, when we have periods of heat or it rains heavily for a long time, these glacial walls can collapse.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened in Patagonia in the last few days.

It is similar to what happened in the Himalayas and Alps a few months ago.

Queulat National Park is located in southern Chile.

Among its main attractions are its forest areas and glaciers.

Source: spiegel

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