A glacier in Patagonia with a forgettable name is becoming memorable for the speed at which it is losing ice.
Some scientists think Hielo Patagónico Sur 12 (HPS-12) could be the fastest-thinning glacier in the world. Satellites offer regular views of HPS-12, which is located in a remote part of the Chilean Andes about 430 kilometers (270 miles) northwest of Punta Arenas and 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) south of Santiago. The glacier is visible about one-third of the way down the western side of the Southern Patagonia Icefield, where the brown rocky edges of the glacier’s fishhook-shaped fjord contrast starkly with surrounding snow and ice. The fjord has become exposed as the glacier has retreated about half its length in three decades.
The false-color images above show a recent look at the changes. The left image was acquired on January 27, 1985, by the Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5 (bands 7-4-2). The right image was acquired on January 9, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 (bands 7-5-3). Visible, near infrared, and infrared wavelengths were combined to better differentiate the types of land cover. Snow and ice are light blue, and water is dark blue. Rocks are brown, and vegetation is green.
Continue reading at NASA Earth Observatory
Image via NASA Earth Observatory
