The deep cracking sound bursts from inside the ice indicates the dramatic fall about to occur. A few seconds later, a block of ice about 70 meters (230 feet) in height – the size of a 20 -storey building – collapses from the face of the Pétito Moreno glacier in acute -marine water below.
The site has attracted visitors to the most famous glacier in Argentina for years. Standing on platforms in front of the ice, they are waiting for the next crack to divide the fresh air from the Patagonian.
But recently, the size of the pieces of ice that decompose – a process called “calving” – began to alarm local guides and glaciologists, already worried during a prolonged retirement by Perito Moreno, which had completed the trend in the past decades by maintaining its mass, even if hotter climates have stimulated faster glacial fusion in the world.
“Ice calculation events of this size have not been very common at the Perito Moreno glacier in the past 20 years,” said Pablo Qupinteros, an official tourist guide to the Los Glaciares National Park in the southern province of Santa Cruz.
“It was only in the past four to six years that we have started to see such big icebergs,” he said Reuters During a visit in April.
The face of the glacier, which flows from Andean peaks to end in the waters of Lake Argentina, had more or less stable decades, a few advanced years and others finding itself. But in the past five years, there has been a firmer retirement.
“He had been in more or less the same position for 80 years. And it is unusual,” said Argentinian glaciologist Lucas Ruiz with the scientific body of the Concet state, whose research is the future of Patagonian glaciers in the face of climate change.
“However, since 2020, signs of retirement have started to be seen in certain parts of the face of the Perito Moreno glacier.”
He said that the glacier could bounce back as he did before, but that for the moment he lost between one and two meters of water equivalent per year, which, if it is not reversed, could lead to a situation where the loss accelerates.
A 2024 report, co-written by Ruiz and presented at the Argentina Congress, has shown that although the mass of Perito Moreno has been global stable for half a century, the period since 2015 has seen the fastest and most prolonged mass loss in 47 years, losing an average of 0.85 meters per year.
Glaciers around the world disappear faster than ever, the last three years, seeing the greatest loss of ice mass never recorded, according to a UNESCO March.
“You cannot enter the vastness of it”
Ruiz said the instruments that his research team used to monitor the glacier had shown an increase in air temperature in the area of approximately 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade and decreasing precipitation, which means less accumulation of 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 at the top of the glacier was exceeded by the melting and calving at the bottom.
“The changes we see today clearly show that this balance of forces … has been disrupted, and today the glacier loses both thickness and in zone.”
For the moment, the glacier remains an impressive attraction for travelers, who are riding boats to see the calving and the huge icebergs floating around the lake closely.
“It’s crazy. The most incredible thing I have ever seen,” said Brazilian tourist Giovanna Machado on the bridge of one of the boats, who must pay attention to the sudden ice cream.
“Even on the photos, you cannot enter the vastness, and it’s perfect. It’s incredible. I think everyone should come here at least once in their life.”
