Perito Moreno Glacier Faces Irreversible Retreat

The Perito Moreno glacier was once considered a rarity: one of the only stable glaciers in Patagonia. however, scientists have discovered it is suffering a sudden and probably irreversible setback, and this collapse serves as a warning for the rest of the world’s ice.

The Moreno Glacier is unusually accessible for such a large and spectacular glacier, receiving about 700,000 visitors annually.

Fed by abundant snowfall in the Andes Mountains,the glacier descends through beech forests until it terminates in Lake Argentino.

From here, tourists can approach and observe closely from a specially built observation platform how icebergs detach from the glacier’s front, a process called calving. Icebergs regularly crack and fall into the turquoise lake below.

But now, all of this is on the verge of disappearing.

While 90% of Patagonia’s glaciers are decreasing in size, the Moreno glacier has long been the exception due to its unique location.

The glacier flows into a narrow channel of Lake Argentino, sometiems advancing enough to entirely block one of the lake’s arms.

This forms a natural ice dam that restricts water flow,causing it to accumulate behind the dam. When the water pressure becomes too great, the dam breaks.

These ruptures typically occur every few years, but predicting when they will happen is impossible.

The glacier has remained stable thus far and hasn’t significantly reduced in size because it terminates in relatively shallow waters, where it interacts with the opposite shore.

However,this is about to change,as years of reduced snowfall and warmer summers have weakened the glacier.

A team of scientists from Germany and Argentina has tracked its changes over time, utilizing satellite data, helicopter-mounted radars, and maps of the lake bed to predict its future behavior.

A Rapid Retreat

In a new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, scientists report that the glacier’s surface has decreased dramatically in recent years and is now retreating faster, while ice flow accelerates.

They believe the perito Moreno glacier will no longer advance toward the opposite shore of the lake.

Rather,it is indeed forecast to continue retreating further into the lake,encountering increasingly deep waters,which will accelerate its collapse.

This is because glaciers calve more