Glacier

Mount Cook Rockfall

Hooker Valley rockfall. – Simon Cox / GNS Science On the evening of Monday 14th July there was a large rockfall from the western slopes of Mount Cook into the Hooker Valley.   Staff from the Department of Conservation and GNS Scientist Simon Cox flew over the area  to make assessments of the  impact. The first photo shows …

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Franz Josef Ice on the Retreat

Franz Josef Glacier 2009 – Julian Thomson GNS Science Recently I visited the West Coast Glaciers and was interested to see their condition after my last visit 5 years ago in 2009. Franz Josef 2009- Photo Eric Burger These photos give and immediate comparison of Franz Josef Glacier over the last 5 years: In 2009 the …

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The growth of Tasman Glacier Lake

The Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand. Its upper section is mostly white as you would expect of a river of ice. However, the lower half is covered with a layer of rock debris about a metre thick. This forms an insulating layer that slows down surface melting and allows the glacier …

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The Changing Height of Mount Cook

Mount Cook  rock avalanche 1991. Lloyd Homer, GNS Science On 14th  December 1991 a massive rock avalanche occurred from the East Face of Aoraki /Mount Cook, sending an estimated 14 million cubic metres of rock in a 1.5 kilometre wide cascade across the grand plateau and down onto the Tasman Glacier. It is thought that …

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Beryllium-10 dating of moraines around Lake Ohau

Lake Ohau is one of several very large lakes in the Southern Alps that fill valleys once carved out by huge glaciers during the Ice Age. As the ice retreated, it left spectacular and classic landforms in its wake, including concentric lines of moraines, erratic boulders, ‘U’ shaped valleys and extensive outwash plains. The rapid …

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