Warming Blamed For Rapid Retreat Of Glaciers At New Zealand's Mt. Cook

[hatrack]

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In the past 30 years glacial recession on the eastern side of the Southern Alps had caused the collapse of the Ball Hut road along the Tasman Glacier's lateral moraine wall and caused the hut site to collapse into the glacier. Skiing parties used to step up on to the glacier, but the surface now lies more than 100m down an unstable moraine wall.

On the western side of the Hooker Glacier, collapsing moraine walls and eroding streambeds in the 1990s destroyed traditional access to the Copland Pass, one of New Zealand's classic alpine routes, and marooned Hooker Hut, the oldest in the national park.

In March this year two 1ha "icebergs" broke off the face of the Tasman Glacier and broke into smaller icebergs dotting the terminal lake.

(Ed. - Mountain guide Gottlieb) Braun-Elwert said that when he emigrated from Germany in the 1970s, there were no lakes at the end of the Tasman, Hooker and Mueller glaciers, but now all three had substantial lakes that were swiftly eroding the ice. "Where there was solid ice on the Tasman Glacier in 1976 there is a 5km lake now, and it's estimated the lake will be 10km long in another 10 years time," he said.

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4046124a7693.html