Last weekend, I found myself in Chilean Patagonia, face to face with a cluster of icebergs at the foot of a glacier in Torres del Paine National Park.
Seeing something in person that I’d previously seen only in photographs was a powerful experience.
The guide mentioned that the glacier is receding at a clip of 4 kilometers per year.
That’s fast.
But nothing was more powerful than seeing–and hearing– two chunks of an iceberg crack and begin to float away towards the shore.
If you were wondering whether global warming is real, get down to Patagonia fast… those icebergs are going, going, almost gone.
Photos: Julie Schwietert Collazo (Matador Travel)
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7 Comments... join the discussion!
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4 km a year is huge. Millions of people in South America are in big, big trouble if those glaciers go.
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incredible photos Julie. Two years ago I looked at some patagonian glaciers on the mountain Tronador near Bariloche. I was with Lau's father, who had first seen the area more than 50 years ago. We were looking at an almost bare mountainside; he remembered when it was all covered by a glacier. I agree with you: you can't really feel any of this until you're down there seeing it for yourself.
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its natural
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I'm agree with you. This is an important theme. Congratulations for your post.
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Maybe so, but I still enjoy reading Michael Crichton's State of Fear.
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nice pictures julie, i see that you finally got some good weather in Patagonia. I must tell you that the information that the guide give to you is wrong, Grey Glacier is receiding 30 meters per year and that is fast. anyway but not 4kilometers per year. Grey Glacier is 12 kilometers long from the base of the mountains to the front at the border of Grey Glacier so if it were receiding 4 kilometers per year it would dissapear in just 3 years….and i would find myself without job. There are some glaciers that advances or retreat some kilometers per year but not Grey Glacier. I have checked this information with Gino Cassasa a local glaciologist who has studied during years the South Pagonia Icefield. I am sorry having to tell this but some guides inside Torres del Paine National Park are not well informed abaut aspects like geology, flora and fauna, many of them are not local guides and no have studied enough.. By other way that a glacier lost ice during summer is normal, they recover the mass lost during winter, on an ideal situation there is equilibrium between the mass lost in summer and the ice formed in winter, problem with global warming is that the equilibrium has been broke and the mass lost in summer is much more than mass formed in winter. Greetings from Patagonia Patricio
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