Isn't this just fascinating to watch?

Question

This is the Perito Morino glazier in Argentina. It was filmed when it was breaking up. Mother nature at her best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiSDiOyGyY

Answer 1

Was fasinating to watch, but couldnt understand why the stupid people was  clapping!!

Answer 2

Amazing to watch and it is Mother Nature at work.

When will people stop blaming global warming for everything? The earth heats up and cools down, always has done, always will do, no matter what we do to it.

Answer 3

Not Mother Nature at her best, Global Warming at the best.

Only have ourselve's too blame ( Including myself ) when the air come's too hot.

Answer 4

You sure thats not a fake?  Looks like Vanessa feltz defrosting her freezer to me

Answer 5

the nature bit was amazing...could have done without the hyperbole of 'WOW''WOW''WOW' every 5 seconds.

I'm a repressed British person after all...............

Answer 6

YAWN..... no blood.

Answer 7

A glazier is a person who installs windows. A glazier's personal life should not be any of our business. They should certainly not be filmed having rows with their loved-ones.

Answer 8

Surf's up, big kahoona.

Answer 9

Wow that is sad, but from what I feel in the Midwest and it's coldest winter in a long time I don't think it is global warming. Thnks for showing it to the world (or me at least).

Answer 10

Boring. They should have played chicken across that ledge.

Answer 11

Great camera work at the start, it pans just in time to catch the first ice fall.

The Perito Moreno glacier has several unique features. For one thing, it is, at the moment the only glacier in the world in a state of equilibrium - neither advancing nor retreating. Retreating is now the norm, due to global warming - numerous other glaciers in the region have disappeared in recent decades, and many others are shrinking rapidly. The Perito Moreno glacier, however, advances at the same rate ice breaks off, and has done so for many years.

Its possible the Perito Moreno's base is lubricated by ice water, so carrying it forwards.

Gravity pushes the thick mass of ice outward - downhill in this case. So this glacier is basically the same as a river, except that the water is frozen. This river moves very slowly - about one meter per day - from its source roughly 30km (19 miles) away. As it descends, it encounters higher air temperatures and begins to melt. Some glaciers melt into the ocean; this one melts into a lake. How long it can maintain this depends on how long its upper reaches are supplied with fresh snow for.

http://itotd.com/articles/467/the-perito...

So it’s advancing, not growing - or shrinking - at present, losing two meters of face a day and advancing just far enough to stay in place due to its weight being pulled by gravity. Only one other glacier in S. America seems to show the same characteristics, all the others are shrinking.

Counter intuitively, glaciers slow in periods of great cold as a colder atmosphere holds less water vapour leading to less snow. Warm periods of course lead them to retreat. Glaciers it seems are like Goldilocks, conditions have to be just right. They also have their own individual climates regimes in mountain regions, depending upon how sheltered by a mountain[s] they are from sun and snowfall.