File:Upsala Glacier, Argentina.jpg

Summary

The Southern Patagonian Icefield of <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Argentina" title="Argentina">Argentina</a> and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chile" title="Chile">Chile</a> is the southern remnant of the Patagonia Ice Sheet that covered the southern <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Andes" title="Andes">Andes</a> Mountains during the last <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ice_age" title="Category:Ice age">ice age</a>. This detailed astronaut photograph illustrates the terminus of one of the ice-field’s many spectacular <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Glacier" title="Glacier">glaciers</a>—Upsala Glacier, located on the eastern side of the ice-field. This image was taken during <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spring" title="Spring">spring</a> in the Southern Hemisphere, and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Iceberg" title="Iceberg">icebergs</a> were calving from the glacier terminus into the waters of Lago Argentino (Lake Argentina, image right). Two icebergs are especially interesting because they retain fragments of the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Moraine" class="mw-redirect" title="Moraine">moraine</a> (rock debris) that forms a dark line along the upper surface of the glacier. The inclusion of the moraine illustrates how land-based rocks and sediment may wind up in ocean sediments far from shore. Moraines are formed from rock and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Soil" title="Category:Soil">soil</a> debris that accumulate along the front and sides of a flowing glacier. The glacier is like a <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer" title="Bulldozer">bulldozer</a> that pushes soil and rock in front of it, leaving debris on either side. When two glaciers merge (image centre), moraines along their edges can join to form a medial moraine that is drawn out along the upper surface of the new glacier.

Licensing

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