Perito Moreno Glacier
Perito Moreno Glacier (Patagonia) 20240207
The Perito Moreno Glacier is an iconic site in the Patagonia Argentina included in the Los Glaciares National Park, declared as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981. It has well-defined limits, great accessibility and infrastructure that gives the area educational potential. Besides the anomalous and periodic unique behavior of this glacier. The area offers an excellent example of the significant process of glaciation, as well as of geological, geomorphic and physiographic phenomena caused by the advance and retreat of the glaciations, which took place during the Pleistocene Epoch.
The Perito Moreno is one of the most important glaciers that break off from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the southern chain of the Andes (Argentina and Chile). This icefield is the last reliect of the greatest glacial expansions that occurred form the late Miocene to the late Pleistocene. This glacier is approximately 30 km long. Its front is 5 km long and has walls up to 60 m high. The glacier penetrates Argentino Lake, but its base maintains contact with the rocky substratum. It´s a temperate or humid base glacier with a unique dynamic behavior. In this sense, its front presents a condition of stability, with brief oscillations (advances) that, when colliding with the western end of the Magallanes Peninsula, periodically causes the temporary blockage of Brazo Rico (as a dam), raising its water level. This situation generates differential stresses at the end of the glacier and causes the progressive transfer of water to the Argentino lake through a tunnel excavated in the ice. The roof of the tunnel collapsed in 1995, which was a spectacular event that made the glacier famous internationally.
Source: .iugs-geoheritage.org
Perito Moreno Glacier
Perito Moreno Glacier (Patagonia) 20240207
The Perito Moreno Glacier is an iconic site in the Patagonia Argentina included in the Los Glaciares National Park, declared as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981. It has well-defined limits, great accessibility and infrastructure that gives the area educational potential. Besides the anomalous and periodic unique behavior of this glacier. The area offers an excellent example of the significant process of glaciation, as well as of geological, geomorphic and physiographic phenomena caused by the advance and retreat of the glaciations, which took place during the Pleistocene Epoch.
The Perito Moreno is one of the most important glaciers that break off from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the southern chain of the Andes (Argentina and Chile). This icefield is the last reliect of the greatest glacial expansions that occurred form the late Miocene to the late Pleistocene. This glacier is approximately 30 km long. Its front is 5 km long and has walls up to 60 m high. The glacier penetrates Argentino Lake, but its base maintains contact with the rocky substratum. It´s a temperate or humid base glacier with a unique dynamic behavior. In this sense, its front presents a condition of stability, with brief oscillations (advances) that, when colliding with the western end of the Magallanes Peninsula, periodically causes the temporary blockage of Brazo Rico (as a dam), raising its water level. This situation generates differential stresses at the end of the glacier and causes the progressive transfer of water to the Argentino lake through a tunnel excavated in the ice. The roof of the tunnel collapsed in 1995, which was a spectacular event that made the glacier famous internationally.
Source: .iugs-geoheritage.org