Perito Moreno glacier breaks in winter for first time

[Mark]

The 196 feet (60m) high wall of ice from the Perito Moreno glacier that usually divides Lake Argentina in Patagonia bursts from time to time under the built-up pressure of the held-back water. This has always occurred in warmer seasons and the event is one of the prime tourist attractions of Argentina.

The Perito Moreno glacier broke open spectacularly yesterday - the first time the glacier has burst in winter.

This year's breaking of the dam was forecast well in advance, though the exact day was unknown, so relatively few visitors - around 300 - were on hand to photograph the phenomenon.

Expert predictions that the rupture could still be days away meant Argentine television stations were caught unprepared and were forced to air images of the last collapse.

An internet broadcast, however, caught this year's rupture live for an estimated 150,000 viewers.

The glacier's ice dam does not break with any regularity, on average just once every four to six years.

It remained intact for 16 years until the last time it broke, on March 14, 2006, when 10,000 visitors and millions of television viewers watched the awesome show put on by nature.

Los Glaciares National Park director Carlos Corvalan said of the latest breaking of the dam: "This is the first time the glacier has broken up in winter. It could be related to global warming as rising temperatures affects ice friction."

Francisco Ferrando, a geographer and glaciology professor at the University of Chile, said global warming was probably causing the ice dam to become thinner.

"There is also increased loss of mass in the front of the glacier, which would result in fewer and shorter periods in which the ice is in contact with the basin of the lake," he said.

The Perito Moreno glacier is the largest of 356 rivers of ice in Los Glaciares National Park, which each year is visited by thousands of tourists.

It is one of the largest glaciers in the world, measuring 106 square miles (275 sq km) and 3 miles (5km) wide at its mouth. It is 1740 miles (2800km) southeast of Buenos Aires.