Added: Jul 8, 2008
From: NTDTV
Duration: 1:32
ANCHOR:Perito Moreno ruptures during wintertime for the first time since 1917. Scientists caution against linking the rupture to global climate change. Here's more on the story.STORY:The Perito Moreno glacier is in the southern Argentine region known as Patagonia. Its a mere few kilometers from the tourist city of El Calafate in the Santa Cruz Province. The Perito Moreno glacier is one of the forty seven glaciers that extends over the Southern Arm of Lake Argentina.[Female Santa Cruz Resident]:"I would really like it if more people were able to enjoy what we in El Calafate live with, and the truth is that it really would be great if more people from Argentina were able to come to enjoy this."The last time the glacier ruptured during the wintertime was in 1917. Now, for the first time in all those years, it will happen again. The rupture that began on July 4th is the first registered since March, 2006. The prior two happened in 1988 and 2004 during February and March. These are summer months in Argentina. Its very rare for the glacier to rupture later than this because of cooler temperatures. Despite the temptation to link the unusual occurrence to global climate change, several Argentine scientists insist that the rupture has more to do with the particular alignment of the Perito Moreno glacier and the surrounding land. Climate change as a cause is all the less likely as an explanation, given that the Perito Merino glacier happens to be the only major Argentine glacier that still maintains a mass balance between water gained and lost throughout the year's seasonal changes. The Perito Moreno glacier is three kilometers wide, extends roughly two hundred cubic kilometers below the sea, and measures on average seventy meters above the level of the Lake Argentina in which it's located.
Channel: News
Tags: argentina climate glacier moreno ntdtv perito
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