Glaciers of New Zealand

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Franz Josef Glacier. Franz Josef glacier.JPG
Franz Josef Glacier.

New Zealand contains many glaciers, mostly located near the Main Divide of the Southern Alps in the South Island. They are classed as mid-latitude mountain glaciers. There are eight small glaciers in the North Island on Mount Ruapehu.

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An inventory of South Island glaciers compiled in the 1980s indicated there were about 3,155 glaciers with an area of at least one hectare (2.5 acres). [1] Approximately one sixth of these glaciers covered more than 10 hectares. These include:

New Zealand's territorial claim in Antarctica, the Ross Dependency, also contains many glaciers.

Retreat of glaciers

The Mueller, Hooker and Tasman glaciers have continued to retreat rapidly in recent years. Notice the larger terminal lakes, the retreat of the white ice (ice free of moraine cover), and the higher moraine walls due to ice thinning. Photo. Tasman Glacier.gif
The Mueller, Hooker and Tasman glaciers have continued to retreat rapidly in recent years. Notice the larger terminal lakes, the retreat of the white ice (ice free of moraine cover), and the higher moraine walls due to ice thinning. Photo.

New Zealand glaciers have been retreating since 1890, with an acceleration of this retreat since 1920. Most of the glaciers have thinned measurably and have reduced in size, and the snow accumulation zones have risen in elevation during the 20th century. In the period 1971–75, Ivory Glacier receded 30 m (98 ft) from the glacial terminus, and about 26% of the surface area of the glacier was lost over the same period.

Since 1980 numerous small glacial lakes were created behind the new terminal moraines of several of these glaciers. Glaciers such as Classen, Godley and Douglas now all have new glacial lakes below their terminal locations due to the glacial retreat over the past 20 years. Satellite imagery indicates that these lakes are continuing to expand. There has been significant and ongoing losses of ice volumes on the largest glaciers: the Tasman, Ivory, Classen, Mueller, Maud, Hooker, Grey, Godley, Ramsay, Murchison, Therma, Volta and Douglas Glaciers. The retreat of these glaciers has been marked by expanding proglacial lakes and terminus region thinning. The loss in volume from 1975–2005 is 11 percent of the total. [2]

Several glaciers, notably the much-visited Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers on the West Coast, have periodically advanced, especially during the 1990s, but the scale of these advances is small when compared to 20th-century retreat. Both glaciers are currently more than 2.5 km (1.6 mi) shorter than a century ago. These large, rapidly flowing glaciers situated on steep slopes have been very reactive to small mass-balance changes. A few years of conditions favorable to glacier advance, such as more westerly winds and a resulting increase in snowfall, are rapidly echoed in a corresponding advance, followed by equally rapid retreat when those favorable conditions end. [3] Hence glacier advance in a few locations is regarded as due to transient local weather conditions which brought more precipitation and cloudier, cooler summers since 2002.

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Alps</span> Mountain range on the South Island in New Zealand

The Southern Alps are a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern Alps" generally refers to the entire range, although separate names are given to many of the smaller ranges that form part of it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park</span> National park in New Zealand

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a national park located in the central-west of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established in October 1953 and takes its name from the highest mountain in New Zealand, Aoraki / Mount Cook. The area of the park is 707 km2 (273 sq mi), and it shares a border with Westland Tai Poutini National Park along the Main Divide of the Southern Alps. The national park consists of reserves that were established as early as 1885 to protect the area's significant landscape and vegetation. Glaciers cover 40% of the park, including the county's largest glacier, Haupapa / Tasman Glacier. In 1990, the park was included in the area designated as the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Site. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) alongside Ngāi Tahu, the iwi who are mana whenua in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Josef Glacier</span> Glacier in the Southern Alps, New Zealand

The Franz Josef Glacier is a 12-kilometre-long (7.5 mi) temperate maritime glacier in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasman Glacier</span> Glacier in New Zealand

Haupapa / Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand, and one of several large glaciers which flow south and east towards the Mackenzie Basin from the Southern Alps in New Zealand's South Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasman River</span> River in New Zealand

The Tasman River is an alpine braided river flowing through Canterbury, in New Zealand's South Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooker Glacier (New Zealand)</span> Glacier in New Zealand

Hooker Glacier is one of several glaciers close to the slopes of Aoraki / Mount Cook in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. It is not as large as its neighbour, the Tasman Glacier, measuring 11 kilometres in length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mueller Glacier</span> Glacier in New Zealand

The Mueller Glacier is a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) long glacier flowing through Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It lies to the west of Mount Cook Village within the Southern Alps, flowing roughly north-west from its névé near Mount Montgomerie before curving around the Sealy Range as it approaches its terminus. Various other glaciers feed into the Mueller Glacier along its route, including the Frind and Huddleston Glaciers. The glacier ends at a small unnamed terminal lake, which is also fed by meltwater from the nearby Hooker Glacier. This lake is the source for the Hooker River, a small tributary of the Tasman River, which flows into Lake Pukaki.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Matheson</span> Lake in New Zealand

Lake Matheson is a small glacial lake in South Westland, New Zealand, near the township of Fox Glacier. It was a traditional food-gathering place for local Māori. An easy walking track circles the lake, which is famous for its reflected views of Aoraki / Mount Cook and Mount Tasman.

The Holocene glacial retreat is a geographical phenomenon that involved the global retreat of glaciers (deglaciation) that previously had advanced during the Last Glacial Maximum. Ice sheet retreat initiated ca. 19,000 years ago and accelerated after ca. 15,000 years ago. The Holocene, starting with abrupt warming 11,700 years ago, resulted in rapid melting of the remaining ice sheets of North America and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retreat of glaciers since 1850</span> Shortening of glaciers by melting

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasman Lake</span> Proglacial lake in Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, South Island

Tasman Lake is a proglacial lake formed by the recent retreat of the Tasman Glacier in New Zealand's South Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sealy Tarns</span>

Sealy Tarns is a small flat area with two small tarns halfway up the northern slopes of the Sealy Range, New Zealand. It is accessible from the Hooker Valley and Mount Cook Village via a tramping track maintained by the Department of Conservation (DOC). The track climbs steeply from about 850 m (2,789 ft) to 1,300 m (4,265 ft) via many switchbacks and over 2,200 steps built of large timber anchored into the ground. The track was established during the 1980s, and upgraded in 2012. The distance for a return trek from Hooker Valley Road to Sealy Tarns is 5.8 km.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooker River</span> River in New Zealand

The Hooker River is a river in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. It flows south from Hooker Lake, the glacier lake of Hooker Glacier, which lies on the southern slopes of Aoraki / Mount Cook. After 3 kilometers, it flows through Mueller Glacier Lake, gathering more glacial water, before joining the braided streams of the Tasman River, also an outflow of a glacier lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westland temperate forests</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooker Lake</span> Proglacial lake in Mount Cook National Park, South Island

Hooker Lake is a proglacial lake that started to form in the late 1970s by the recent retreat of the Hooker Glacier. It is in the Hooker Valley, in the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand's South Island, just south of Aoraki / Mount Cook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooker Valley Track</span> Walking path in New Zealand

The Hooker Valley Track is the most popular short walking track within the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. At only 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) length and gaining only about 100 m (330 ft) in height, the well formed track can be walked by tourists with a wide range of level of fitness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Chinn (glaciologist)</span> New Zealand glaciologist (1937–2018)

Trevor James Hill Chinn was a New Zealand glaciologist, who conducted extensive surveys of the glaciers of New Zealand's Southern Alps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dart Glacier</span>

The Dart Glacier is an approximately six-kilometre-long (3.7 mi) glacier located in Mount Aspiring National Park, in the upper reaches of Otago, New Zealand. The glacier is the primary source of the Dart River / Te Awa Whakatipu, one of the main inflows of the nearby Lake Wakatipu before its water eventually joins the network of the Clutha River / Mata-Au some 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the southeast of the glacier's terminus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of the South Island</span> Overview of the Geography of South Island

The South Island, with an area of 150,437 km2 (58,084 sq mi), is the largest landmass of New Zealand; it contains about one-quarter of the New Zealand population and is the world's 12th-largest island. It is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki / Mount Cook at 3,724 metres (12,218 ft), making it 9th-highest island, with the high Kaikōura Ranges to the northeast. There are eighteen peaks of more than 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in the South Island. The east side of the island is home to the Canterbury Plains while the West Coast is famous for its rough coastlines such as Fiordland, a very high proportion of native bush, and Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The dramatic landscape of the South Island has made it a popular location for the production of several films, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It lies at similar latitudes to Tasmania, and parts of Patagonia in South America.

References

  1. Chinn, Trevor J.H., (1988), Glaciers of New Zealand, in Satellite image atlas of glaciers of the world, U.S. Geological Survey professional paper; 1386, ISBN   0-607-71457-3.
  2. Salinger, Jim and Andrew Willsman (February 2007). "Annual Glacier Volumes in New Zealand 1995–2005". NIWA Client Report: AKL2007-014. Statistics New Zealand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
  3. U.S. Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior (5 April 2000). "Glaciers of New Zealand".