Glacier wait 'a bit like Jaws'

GLACIER EXPLORERS

WAITING FOR THE BIG ONER: Glacier Explorers' manager Bede Ward looks over the rising face of the Tasman Glacier after the closest glimpse in days at what is happening at the terminal face. Part of it is expected to shear off and become an iceberg.

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After rain and avalanche threats, conditions have cleared to allow a closer look at the rising, cracked face of the Tasman Glacier.

A team from Glacier Explorers, which gives tours of the terminal lake, yesterday got within 690 metres of the ice floe that recently gained international attention following reports the face will soon break off into an iceberg.

Heavy rain in the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park has seeped underneath the base of the glacier, pushing the terminal face up by 30 metres since August 2. As a result, millions of tonnes of ice are expected to snap from the rest of the glacier, and become one or more large icebergs.

A chunk of ice, about 250 metres long, 250 metres wide and 80 metres high, fell into the terminal lake in February last year, generating a 3 metre surge of water.

Denis Callesen, tourism general manager of Aoraki/Mt Cook Alpine Village, said a lowering of the avalanche risk allowed several staff members to get alongside the glacier, though from the safety of the moraine wall above it.

"The scope is enormous. There were cracks in the glacier before, but they've certainly gotten bigger, possibly as wide as one or two metres."

While the wall of ice keeps climbing out of the water, Mr Callesen said there was still no idea when it would calve off into an iceberg. "The fellow upstairs will decide that. It's a new phenomenon, there's no telling what will happen."

He said it was the magnitude that made this event unique – a much smaller rise happened following torrential rain in 1994 – and so far the event was "running as predicted".

Glacier Explorers' manager Bede Ward said it was "a bit like the movie Jaws; it's what is below the water – and you can't see – that you worry about".

- © Fairfax NZ News

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