Glacier grandeur meets peril at Argentina’s Perito Moreno

Once a symbol of glacial stability, Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier is now shedding massive ice blocks at an alarming rate. These powerful collapses reflect a deeper crisis, signaling the growing impact of climate change on Earth’s frozen frontiers

- REUTERS

The deep cracking sound bursting from within the ice signals the dramatic fall about to happen. Seconds later, a block of ice some 70 meters (230 ft) tall - the size of a 20-story building - collapses from the face of the Perito Moreno glacier into the aquamarine water below.

"The sight has attracted visi-tors to Argentina's most famous glacier for years. Standing on platforms facing the ice, they wait for the next crack to split the cool Patagonian air.

But recently the size of the ice chunks breaking off -a process called "calving" - has been start-ing to alarm local guides and glaciologists, already anxious at a prolonged retreat by Perito Moreno, which had bucked the trend in recent decades by main-taining its mass even as warmer climates spurred faster glacial melting worldwide.