Then again, it´s supposed to be cold. It´s a glacier.
The Perito Moreno glacier is advancing -- one of the few still doing so -- quite rapidly. Two meters a day.
The sunny north face
The leading edge crumbles into cold, cold, cold water.
The main tourist attraction here, besides the spectacular scenery, is that chunks of the glacier drop off more or less constantly. The deafening noise seems out of proportion to the pieces coming off, until you realize that you´re seeing something the size of your house fall into the water.
Hiker, for scale (see tallish dot at left)
The light here seems unusual, both the fickle sun and the light from within the ice itself -- the most compressed ice seems to have an electrical glow.
Blue ice
We felt lucky to see it. Even if we did have to fortify ourselves with hot drinks.
Nothing like some glaciers to eradicate my jealousy re: your trip. It is beautiful, though. I love how different places have different light qualities. In LA, for instance, I was able to take photos with really low speeds of film because the light is so intense. Like 25 and 50 B/W. Try that on the east coast and you get murky, shadowy photos.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes the ice blue?
Okay, reading this blog (and noting connex to stuff happening here) is odd. If there was anything wonderful to discover while shoveling out 2' of snow from an entire city block, it was the blue light within the snow. My FB pics don't include any of that light, but it was a nice break to look inside the piles. I guess it must be something similar to why the ocean's blue...? Physics anyone?
ReplyDeleteWOW!!!!! That's all I can manage typing 1 handed while nursing. Love to you both and love theblog.
ReplyDeleteCarla
Carla, so great to hear from you! I´m impressed with your typing.
ReplyDeleteThe blue light, they say, is from ice getting compressed so that only blue light can penetrate into it (longest wavelength, I think?), which I think is the same reason the ocean is blue.
If anyone has taken physics more recently or remembers it better and cares to elaborate, please do!