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Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina
The growing glacier
It's hard to grasp the scale of this shot at first glance, but as the creeping clouds probably tipped you off, we're seeing something much larger than a half-frozen pond. To give you just an idea, the edges of that ice sheet rise 73 metres above the surface of Argentino Lake. Sail along the whole length of the sheer ice cliff and you'll have travelled more than 4 kilometres. And this is just the tip of the iceberg – or, glacier. Beyond this narrow end that feeds the 500-metre-deep lake, Perito Moreno Glacier covers almost 260 square kilometres. In even bigger news – unlike most of Earth's glaciers, this ice giant is actually growing.
The growing glacier
It's hard to grasp the scale of this shot at first glance, but as the creeping clouds probably tipped you off, we're seeing something much larger than a half-frozen pond. To give you just an idea, the edges of that ice sheet rise 73 metres above the surface of Argentino Lake. Sail along the whole length of the sheer ice cliff and you'll have travelled more than 4 kilometres. And this is just the tip of the iceberg – or, glacier. Beyond this narrow end that feeds the 500-metre-deep lake, Perito Moreno Glacier covers almost 260 square kilometres. In even bigger news – unlike most of Earth's glaciers, this ice giant is actually growing.
Vast in and of itself, this glacier is one of 48 in the larger Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
© Joseph Sohm; Visions of America / Corbis Documentary / Getty Images 2026-09-11 08:45:51 :