From a Glacier's Perspective

May 27, 2020

Darwin Glacier, Chile 1986-2020 Retreat Opens New Fjord Arm

Darwin Glacier in Landsat images from 1986 and 2020. Red arrow indicates 1986 terminus location, yellow arrow 2020 terminus location, purple dots the snowline. Point 1,2 and 3 indicate the same specific location. Darwin Glacier flows east from the main divide of the Cordillera Darwin entering the head of Fjord Parry. Here we examine changes illustrated by Landsat images from 1986-2020. Melkonian et al (2013) note widespread thinning of four large glaciers …

December 26, 2018

Videla Glacier Retreat, Tierra del Fuego, Chile Generates New and Expanding Lakes

Videla Glacier, Chile in 1997 and 2018 Landsat images. Red dots mark the 1997 terminus locations, yellow dots the 2018 terminus position and purple dots the snowline. Videla Glacier is a land terminating glacier in the northwest portion of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield (CDI). The glacier has terminates in several expanding proglacial lakes each in front of a different tongue of the glacier. The glacier flows northwest from Cerro Ambience …

September 7, 2017

Ventisquero Grande Glacier, Chile Retreats; Not so Grande in 2017

Ventisquero Grande Glacier comparison in Landsat images from 1997 and 2017. Red arrows mark the 1997 terminus, yellow arrows the 2017 terminus, purple dots the snowline and purple arrow the junction of the tributaries. Ventisquero Grande Glacier is at the head of Ventisquero Seno in the Cordillera Darwin of Tierra del Fuego. The fjord is just west of Garibladi Fjord and opens into Darwin Channel. Melkonian et al (2013) note widespread thinning of four large …

December 29, 2014

Roncagli Glacier Retreat, Tierra del Fuego, Chile

The Cordillera Darwin in Tierra Del Fuego, Chile is a remote area that is notorious for stormy, cloudy weather that makes for only a few good satellite images. Roncagli(Alemania) Glacier is the focus of this post and is an update to a previous post. The glacier has a terminus adjacent to the Beagle Channe(BC) and a secondary terminus in Lago Martinic (LM), 5 km upglacier. Velocity profiles by Melkonian et …

December 23, 2014

Marinelli Glacier Retreat, Chile

Marinelli Glacier, Chile is the largest glacier of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield. This ice cap is in Tierra del Fuego, a region famous for cloudy, stormy weather. Fernandez et al. (2011) indicate that rapid retreat particularly since 1945 has led to high erosion and sedimentation rates. They also provide an excellent diagram of the glacier from three time periods. The glacier extended to the Little Ice Age-Neoglacial moraine at the …

April 15, 2012

Alemania Glacier Retreat, Lago Martinic expansion-contraction, Chile

The Cordillera Darwin in Tierra Del Fuego Chile is a remote area. GLIMS (Glacier Land Ice Monitoring from Space) which has an inventory of glaciers showing at least size and boundaries, has nothing for this region in 2012. The USGS in their publication on South American glaciers just notes the lack of satellite imagery for assessing these remote glaciers. Chile is currently undertaking an inventory of these glaciers. The Alemania …