3000 x 3062 px | 25,4 x 25,9 cm | 10 x 10,2 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
5 maggio 2017
Altre informazioni:
Patagonia is one of the windiest and wettest regions on Earth. Westerlies gain moisture and momentum as they cross the Pacific Ocean. When they reach South America, they ride up and over the Andes, through fjords, and across two icefields. Having spent several field seasons on and around the South Patagonian Icefield, glaciologist Michele Koppes of the University of British Columbia knows first-hand the challenges posed by the elements. “The katabatic winds that drain down the eastern slopes can pick you and your heavy backpack right off your feet and turn you over like a turtle, †Koppes said, a phenomenon she experienced a few times while trying to reach glaciers in Torres del Paine and Los Glaciares National Park. “The winds can blow tents right off their stakes and send them tumbling across lakes.†And then there is the moisture to contend with. Precipitation can be intense on the west side of the icefields, which receive up to 4 meters (160 inches) of rain and snow per year; it is more moderate in the east, which receives less than 1 meter (40 inches) per year. Koppes has spent weeks at a time waiting for weather clear enough for an airplane to fly her to the glaciers to collect data. She has met climbers huddled in tents for more than a month, waiting for a window of weather favorable enough for ascending the pinnacles on the icefield’s east side. Scientists endure these conditions in order to better understand how and why the Patagonian icefields are shrinking. “The glaciers in this region are changing rapidly, †said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California-Irvine. “They are, in fact, melting away at some of the highest rates on the planet. The reason is that they are not only melting from the top because of warm air, but also from below, where they come in contact with ocean and lake waters.†Often shrouded in clouds and mist, the entirety of the South Patagonian Icefield is rarel
