The deep cracking sound from the ice signals the dramatic case. Seconds later, an ice block breaks about 70 meters of the size of a 20-story building off the front of the Perito Moreno glacier into the aquamarine water.
The sight has attracted visitors to the most famous glacier in Argentina for years. They stand on the platforms with a view of the ice and wait for the next crack to share the cool Patagonian air.
Recently, the size of the chunks of ice – a process called “calves” – to alert local guides and glaciologens, which have already been anxious in a long withdrawal from Perito Moreno, which has kept the trend with the mass in recent decades, also as a warmer climate gauge gear glacialing worldwide.
“In the past 20 years, Ice Calbing Events of this size have not been very common in the Perito Moreno Glacier,” said Pablo Quinteros, an official tourist leader in Los Glaciar’s National Park in the southern province of Santa Cruz.
“We have only seen Eisbergs so big in the past four to six years,” he told Reuters when visiting April.
Tourists have long traveled to the Los Glaciars National Park in Argentina to see the famous Perito Moreno Glacier. But the size of the youngest “calves”, in which the chunks of ice break off from the main glacier, triggered the alarm for local experts and glaciologists.
The face of the glacier, which flows from Andean peaks to end in the waters of Lake Argentina, had more or less steadily stepped forward for decades and retired for a few years. But there has been a firmer retreat in the past five years.
“It has been more or less in the same position in the past 80 years. And that is unusual,” said Argentine Glaciologist Lucas Ruiz from the state science body (National Scientific and Technical Research Council), whose research focus is the future of the Patagonian glacier in view of climate change.
“However, since 2020, some parts of the face of the Perito Moreno Glacier have been given.”
He said that the glacier could recover, as he did before, but at the moment it lost between one and two meters of water per year, which, if it was not the other way around, could lead to a situation in which the loss accelerates.
A report compiled by Ruiz 2024 2024 showed that Perito Moreno’s mass has been stable overall in overall for half a century, which has experienced the fastest and longer mass loss in 47 years since 2015 and has lost an average of 0.85 meters per year.
Glaciers all over the world disappear faster than ever. According to a UNESCO report in March, the last three-year period has the largest glacier loss.
“You cannot grasp the immeasurity”
According to Ruiz, instruments for monitoring the glacier have shown an increase in the air temperature in the range of around 0.06 ° C per decade and decreasing precipitation, which accumulates less snow and ice.
“The thing with Perito Moreno is that it took a while, so to speak, to feel the effects of climate change,” said Ruiz. Now, however, the accumulation of ice on the top of the glacier was exceeded by melting and calves below.
“The changes we see today clearly show that this balance of power … has been disturbed, and today the glacier loses both thick and in the area.”
At the moment, the glacier remains an impressive attraction for travelers who increase boats to see the calves and the huge icebergs up close around the lake.
“It’s crazy. The most incredible thing I’ve ever seen,” said Brazilian tourist Giovanna Machado on the deck of one of the boats that have to be careful with sudden ice cases.
“Even in photos you cannot grasp the immeasurity and it is perfect. It is amazing. I think everyone should come here at least once in their lives.”
