Argentina - El Calafate, Perito Moreno Glacier

The Perito Moreno Glacier - named after explorer Francisco Moreno - is located in Los Glaciares National Park, about 80 km’s from El Calafate. The glacier is part of the so called Southern Patagonian Ice Field. This ice field is one of the largest reserves of fresh water on earth.

The glacier has a length of 30 km’s and its terminus is 5 km’s wide. We were on a boat trip and it is overwhelming to see this ice wall of 60 metres above the water of Lago Argentino with its crevices, clefts, peaks and sometimes deep turquoise colours. Constantly you hear the noise of large pieces of ice collapsing as the glacier slowly advances.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the few Patagonian glaciers that is still growing. On the left side of the picture you can see the glacier terminus 'touching' the mainland and damming a part of Lago Argentino (‘Brazo Rico’). The water level on that part of the lake will rise high above the level on the other side of the ice dam.
Every year (or couple of years) the pressure of the dammed water breaks through the ice barrier causing a spectacular rupture, sending a massive outpouring of water from Brazo Rico into Lago Argentino.