The Dwindling Glaciers of the Upper Rakaia Valley, Canterbury, New Zealand
Abstract These glaciers are in a district that was seldom visited before the great expansion of recreational tramping and mountaineering in New Zealand during the past twenty years, but the record extends back for eighty-five years. During this time the chief glaciers have receded considerably but i...
| Published in: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1951
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000026551 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000026551 |
| Summary: | Abstract These glaciers are in a district that was seldom visited before the great expansion of recreational tramping and mountaineering in New Zealand during the past twenty years, but the record extends back for eighty-five years. During this time the chief glaciers have receded considerably but irregularly, and for one of them the records indicate a vertical downwasting and thinning. Although this glacier shows no sign yet of recovery it is fed from the same snowfield as that which supplies another glacier descending west from the main divide and which may have begun to advance. An appreciable re-advance of the Franz Josef Glacier has already been given notice in the, Journal of Glaciology , and it may be that the steep gradients of the west-flowing glaciers of the Southern Alps enable them to respond to short-term climatic fluctuations, whereas the flatter east-flowing streams continue to shrink, in keeping with the world-wide trend. |
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