80-566: Fox Glacier ( Māori : Te Moeka o Tuawe ; officially Fox Glacier / Te Moeka o Tuawe ) is a 13-kilometre-long (8.1 mi) temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island . Like nearby Franz Josef Glacier , Fox Glacier is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world, with a terminal face as low as 300 m above sea level, close to
160-565: A Eurocopter Écureuil (squirrel) helicopter operated by Alpine Adventures crashed on the glacier . On 26 March 2019 heavy rains caused flooding in the area, destroying the Waiho Bridge across State Highway 6 at Franz Josef. The rains also triggered an enormous landslide in the Fox River valley that washed away about 150 m of the northern glacier access road and destroyed the car park. The road had already been washed out several times in
240-424: A cirque landform (alternatively known as a corrie or as a cwm ) – a typically armchair-shaped geological feature (such as a depression between mountains enclosed by arêtes ) – which collects and compresses through gravity the snow that falls into it. This snow accumulates and the weight of the snow falling above compacts it, forming névé (granular snow). Further crushing of the individual snowflakes and squeezing
320-614: A cow. "In those ancient days I did not pay much attention to the glaciers," he later wrote. With the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 , the glacier's name changed once again to Fox Glacier / Te Moeka o Tuawe. Fed by four alpine glaciers, Fox Glacier descends 2,600 m (8,500 ft) on its 13 km journey from the Southern Alps towards the coast, finishing near rainforest 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level. After retreating for most of
400-522: A glacier is usually assessed by determining the glacier mass balance or observing terminus behavior. Healthy glaciers have large accumulation zones, more than 60% of their area is snow-covered at the end of the melt season, and they have a terminus with a vigorous flow. Following the Little Ice Age 's end around 1850, glaciers around the Earth have retreated substantially . A slight cooling led to
480-601: A glacier may flow into a body of water, it forms only on land and is distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water. On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets (also known as "continental glaciers") in the polar regions , but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent other than the Australian mainland, including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand . Between latitudes 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in
560-411: A glacier via moulins . Streams within or beneath a glacier flow in englacial or sub-glacial tunnels. These tunnels sometimes reemerge at the glacier's surface. Most of the important processes controlling glacial motion occur in the ice-bed contact—even though it is only a few meters thick. The bed's temperature, roughness and softness define basal shear stress, which in turn defines whether movement of
640-408: A kilometer per year. Eventually, the ice will be surging fast enough that it begins to thin, as accumulation cannot keep up with the transport. This thinning will increase the conductive heat loss, slowing the glacier and causing freezing. This freezing will slow the glacier further, often until it is stationary, whence the cycle can begin again. The flow of water under the glacial surface can have
720-457: A large dining room for up to 70 diners. The building measured 30 metres (100 ft) by 15 metres (50 ft), with a height of 11.6 metres (38 ft), and was constructed of heart rimu timber framing and weatherboards on a concrete foundation, with a corrugated steel roof. A large portico at the main entrance provided shelter for arriving and departing guests. Upholstery for the hotel was completed by Caliari and O'Connell of Hokitika , while
800-404: A large effect on the motion of the glacier itself. Subglacial lakes contain significant amounts of water, which can move fast: cubic kilometers can be transported between lakes over the course of a couple of years. This motion is thought to occur in two main modes: pipe flow involves liquid water moving through pipe-like conduits, like a sub-glacial river; sheet flow involves motion of water in
880-460: A lower heat conductance, meaning that the basal temperature is also likely to be higher. Bed temperature tends to vary in a cyclic fashion. A cool bed has a high strength, reducing the speed of the glacier. This increases the rate of accumulation, since newly fallen snow is not transported away. Consequently, the glacier thickens, with three consequences: firstly, the bed is better insulated, allowing greater retention of geothermal heat. Secondly,
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#1732787627539960-448: A purpose-built hotel, and they established a sawmill to mill local rimu for the project. The hotel was built in 1928, at a cost of approximately £20,000, and was officially opened on 20 December 1928. Although a two-storey building, the hotel was described as have a bungalow style , owing to the generous upper-floor verandahs. The hotel was built with 40 bedrooms, designed to accommodate up to 100 guests, as well as four parlours and
1040-488: A thin layer. A switch between the two flow conditions may be associated with surging behavior. Indeed, the loss of sub-glacial water supply has been linked with the shut-down of ice movement in the Kamb ice stream. The subglacial motion of water is expressed in the surface topography of ice sheets, which slump down into vacated subglacial lakes. The speed of glacial displacement is partly determined by friction . Friction makes
1120-410: A tremendous impact as the iceberg strikes the water. Tidewater glaciers undergo centuries-long cycles of advance and retreat that are much less affected by climate change than other glaciers. Thermally, a temperate glacier is at a melting point throughout the year, from its surface to its base. The ice of a polar glacier is always below the freezing threshold from the surface to its base, although
1200-468: Is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries . It acquires distinguishing features, such as crevasses and seracs , as it slowly flows and deforms under stresses induced by its weight. As it moves, it abrades rock and debris from its substrate to create landforms such as cirques , moraines , or fjords . Although
1280-456: Is above or at freezing at the interface and is able to slide at this contact. This contrast is thought to a large extent to govern the ability of a glacier to effectively erode its bed , as sliding ice promotes plucking at rock from the surface below. Glaciers which are partly cold-based and partly warm-based are known as polythermal . Glaciers form where the accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation . A glacier usually originates from
1360-407: Is affected by factors such as slope, ice thickness, snowfall, longitudinal confinement, basal temperature, meltwater production, and bed hardness. A few glaciers have periods of very rapid advancement called surges . These glaciers exhibit normal movement until suddenly they accelerate, then return to their previous movement state. These surges may be caused by the failure of the underlying bedrock,
1440-411: Is because these peaks are located near or in the hyperarid Atacama Desert . Glaciers erode terrain through two principal processes: plucking and abrasion . As glaciers flow over bedrock, they soften and lift blocks of rock into the ice. This process, called plucking, is caused by subglacial water that penetrates fractures in the bedrock and subsequently freezes and expands. This expansion causes
1520-406: Is by basal sliding, where meltwater forms between the ice and the bed itself. Whether a bed is hard or soft depends on the porosity and pore pressure; higher porosity decreases the sediment strength (thus increases the shear stress τ B ). Porosity may vary through a range of methods. Bed softness may vary in space or time, and changes dramatically from glacier to glacier. An important factor
1600-434: Is called glaciology . Glaciers are important components of the global cryosphere . Glaciers are categorized by their morphology, thermal characteristics, and behavior. Alpine glaciers form on the crests and slopes of mountains. A glacier that fills a valley is called a valley glacier , or alternatively, an alpine glacier or mountain glacier . A large body of glacial ice astride a mountain, mountain range, or volcano
1680-416: Is called rock flour and is made up of rock grains between 0.002 and 0.00625 mm in size. Abrasion leads to steeper valley walls and mountain slopes in alpine settings, which can cause avalanches and rock slides, which add even more material to the glacier. Glacial abrasion is commonly characterized by glacial striations . Glaciers produce these when they contain large boulders that carve long scratches in
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#17327876275391760-647: Is higher, and the mountains above 5,000 m (16,400 ft) usually have permanent snow. Even at high latitudes, glacier formation is not inevitable. Areas of the Arctic , such as Banks Island , and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are considered polar deserts where glaciers cannot form because they receive little snowfall despite the bitter cold. Cold air, unlike warm air, is unable to transport much water vapor. Even during glacial periods of
1840-897: Is termed an ice cap or ice field . Ice caps have an area less than 50,000 km (19,000 sq mi) by definition. Glacial bodies larger than 50,000 km (19,000 sq mi) are called ice sheets or continental glaciers . Several kilometers deep, they obscure the underlying topography. Only nunataks protrude from their surfaces. The only extant ice sheets are the two that cover most of Antarctica and Greenland. They contain vast quantities of freshwater, enough that if both melted, global sea levels would rise by over 70 m (230 ft). Portions of an ice sheet or cap that extend into water are called ice shelves ; they tend to be thin with limited slopes and reduced velocities. Narrow, fast-moving sections of an ice sheet are called ice streams . In Antarctica, many ice streams drain into large ice shelves . Some drain directly into
1920-413: Is the region where there is a net loss in glacier mass. The upper part of a glacier, where accumulation exceeds ablation, is called the accumulation zone . The equilibrium line separates the ablation zone and the accumulation zone; it is the contour where the amount of new snow gained by accumulation is equal to the amount of ice lost through ablation. In general, the accumulation zone accounts for 60–70% of
2000-402: Is the underlying geology; glacial speeds tend to differ more when they change bedrock than when the gradient changes. Further, bed roughness can also act to slow glacial motion. The roughness of the bed is a measure of how many boulders and obstacles protrude into the overlying ice. Ice flows around these obstacles by melting under the high pressure on their stoss side ; the resultant meltwater
2080-552: Is then forced into the cavity arising in their lee side , where it re-freezes. As well as affecting the sediment stress, fluid pressure (p w ) can affect the friction between the glacier and the bed. High fluid pressure provides a buoyancy force upwards on the glacier, reducing the friction at its base. The fluid pressure is compared to the ice overburden pressure, p i , given by ρgh. Under fast-flowing ice streams, these two pressures will be approximately equal, with an effective pressure (p i – p w ) of 30 kPa; i.e. all of
2160-993: The Andes , the Himalayas , the Rocky Mountains , the Caucasus , Scandinavian Mountains , and the Alps . Snezhnika glacier in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria with a latitude of 41°46′09″ N is the southernmost glacial mass in Europe. Mainland Australia currently contains no glaciers, although a small glacier on Mount Kosciuszko was present in the last glacial period . In New Guinea, small, rapidly diminishing, glaciers are located on Puncak Jaya . Africa has glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on Mount Kenya , and in
2240-644: The Faroe and Crozet Islands were completely glaciated. The permanent snow cover necessary for glacier formation is affected by factors such as the degree of slope on the land, amount of snowfall and the winds. Glaciers can be found in all latitudes except from 20° to 27° north and south of the equator where the presence of the descending limb of the Hadley circulation lowers precipitation so much that with high insolation snow lines reach above 6,500 m (21,330 ft). Between 19˚N and 19˚S, however, precipitation
2320-760: The Himalayas , Andes , and a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard-Kuh in Iran. With more than 7,000 known glaciers, Pakistan has more glacial ice than any other country outside the polar regions. Glaciers cover about 10% of Earth's land surface. Continental glaciers cover nearly 13 million km (5 million sq mi) or about 98% of Antarctica 's 13.2 million km (5.1 million sq mi), with an average thickness of ice 2,100 m (7,000 ft). Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers. The volume of glaciers, not including
2400-562: The Quaternary , Manchuria , lowland Siberia , and central and northern Alaska , though extraordinarily cold, had such light snowfall that glaciers could not form. In addition to the dry, unglaciated polar regions, some mountains and volcanoes in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina are high (4,500 to 6,900 m or 14,800 to 22,600 ft) and cold, but the relative lack of precipitation prevents snow from accumulating into glaciers. This
2480-535: The Rwenzori Mountains . Oceanic islands with glaciers include Iceland, several of the islands off the coast of Norway including Svalbard and Jan Mayen to the far north, New Zealand and the subantarctic islands of Marion , Heard , Grande Terre (Kerguelen) and Bouvet . During glacial periods of the Quaternary, Taiwan , Hawaii on Mauna Kea and Tenerife also had large alpine glaciers, while
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2560-448: The 1990s and 2000s. In a study using data from January 1993 through October 2005, more events were detected every year since 2002, and twice as many events were recorded in 2005 as there were in any other year. Ogives or Forbes bands are alternating wave crests and valleys that appear as dark and light bands of ice on glacier surfaces. They are linked to seasonal motion of glaciers; the width of one dark and one light band generally equals
2640-511: The Sullivan brothers, the building was granted historic place category 2 status by Heritage New Zealand in 1989. In the 1920s, a concerted effort was made to promote the West Coast, and the glacier region in particular, as a tourist destination. At Fox Glacier village, then known as Weheka, the Sullivan family had used their farm homestead as tourist accommodation, but increased demand saw the Sullivan brothers, Mick and John, decide to construct
2720-412: The advance of many alpine glaciers between 1950 and 1985, but since 1985 glacier retreat and mass loss has become larger and increasingly ubiquitous. Glaciers move downhill by the force of gravity and the internal deformation of ice. At the molecular level, ice consists of stacked layers of molecules with relatively weak bonds between layers. When the amount of strain (deformation) is proportional to
2800-520: The air from the snow turns it into "glacial ice". This glacial ice will fill the cirque until it "overflows" through a geological weakness or vacancy, such as a gap between two mountains. When the mass of snow and ice reaches sufficient thickness, it begins to move by a combination of surface slope, gravity, and pressure. On steeper slopes, this can occur with as little as 15 m (49 ft) of snow-ice. In temperate glaciers, snow repeatedly freezes and thaws, changing into granular ice called firn . Under
2880-430: The amount of melting at surface of the glacier, the faster the ice will flow. Basal sliding is dominant in temperate or warm-based glaciers. The presence of basal meltwater depends on both bed temperature and other factors. For instance, the melting point of water decreases under pressure, meaning that water melts at a lower temperature under thicker glaciers. This acts as a "double whammy", because thicker glaciers have
2960-713: The annual movement of the glacier. Ogives are formed when ice from an icefall is severely broken up, increasing ablation surface area during summer. This creates a swale and space for snow accumulation in the winter, which in turn creates a ridge. Sometimes ogives consist only of undulations or color bands and are described as wave ogives or band ogives. Glaciers are present on every continent and in approximately fifty countries, excluding those (Australia, South Africa) that have glaciers only on distant subantarctic island territories. Extensive glaciers are found in Antarctica, Argentina, Chile, Canada, Pakistan, Alaska, Greenland and Iceland. Mountain glaciers are widespread, especially in
3040-432: The bedrock has frequent fractures on the surface, glacial erosion rates tend to increase as plucking is the main erosive force on the surface; when the bedrock has wide gaps between sporadic fractures, however, abrasion tends to be the dominant erosive form and glacial erosion rates become slow. Glaciers in lower latitudes tend to be much more erosive than glaciers in higher latitudes, because they have more meltwater reaching
3120-445: The bedrock. By mapping the direction of the striations, researchers can determine the direction of the glacier's movement. Similar to striations are chatter marks , lines of crescent-shape depressions in the rock underlying a glacier. They are formed by abrasion when boulders in the glacier are repeatedly caught and released as they are dragged along the bedrock. The rate of glacier erosion varies. Six factors control erosion rate: When
3200-574: The closure of the access road, a $ 3.9 million spending package was announced in August 2019 for other tourism projects around Fox Glacier: extending a cycleway to Lake Matheson, upgrading and reopening the track to Lake Gault, improving the road and track access on the south side of the Fox River valley, and reopening the coastal walkway to Galway Beach north of Gillespies Beach. Glacier A glacier ( US : / ˈ ɡ l eɪ ʃ ər / ; UK : / ˈ ɡ l æ s i ər , ˈ ɡ l eɪ s i ər / )
3280-571: The created ice's density. The word glacier is a loanword from French and goes back, via Franco-Provençal , to the Vulgar Latin glaciārium , derived from the Late Latin glacia , and ultimately Latin glaciēs , meaning "ice". The processes and features caused by or related to glaciers are referred to as glacial. The process of glacier establishment, growth and flow is called glaciation . The corresponding area of study
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3360-467: The deep profile of fjords , which can reach a kilometer in depth as ice is topographically steered into them. The extension of fjords inland increases the rate of ice sheet thinning since they are the principal conduits for draining ice sheets. It also makes the ice sheets more sensitive to changes in climate and the ocean. Although evidence in favor of glacial flow was known by the early 19th century, other theories of glacial motion were advanced, such as
3440-483: The deformation to become a plastic flow rather than elastic. Then, the glacier will begin to deform under its own weight and flow across the landscape. According to the Glen–Nye flow law , the relationship between stress and strain, and thus the rate of internal flow, can be modeled as follows: where: The lowest velocities are near the base of the glacier and along valley sides where friction acts against flow, causing
3520-418: The essentially correct explanation in the 1840s, although it was several decades before it was fully accepted. The top 50 m (160 ft) of a glacier are rigid because they are under low pressure . This upper section is known as the fracture zone and moves mostly as a single unit over the plastic-flowing lower section. When a glacier moves through irregular terrain, cracks called crevasses develop in
3600-475: The fracture zone. Crevasses form because of differences in glacier velocity. If two rigid sections of a glacier move at different speeds or directions, shear forces cause them to break apart, opening a crevasse. Crevasses are seldom more than 46 m (150 ft) deep but, in some cases, can be at least 300 m (1,000 ft) deep. Beneath this point, the plasticity of the ice prevents the formation of cracks. Intersecting crevasses can create isolated peaks in
3680-553: The glacial base and facilitate sediment production and transport under the same moving speed and amount of ice. Material that becomes incorporated in a glacier is typically carried as far as the zone of ablation before being deposited. Glacial deposits are of two distinct types: Fox Glacier Hotel Fox Glacier Hotel is a hotel in Fox Glacier , on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island . Completed in 1928 for
3760-500: The glacier face, although barriers and warning signs prevented them from entering the "danger zone" close to the active glacier face. Safety warnings were ignored, however, by up to one third of the 600,000 tourists a year visiting West Coast glaciers. Two Australian tourists were killed in January 2009 after they crossed safety barriers and walked 500 m to the terminal face to take photos. On 21 November 2015, seven people were killed when
3840-453: The glacier to melt, creating a water source that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources may be scant. However, within high-altitude and Antarctic environments, the seasonal temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g., precipitation , mean temperature , and cloud cover , glacial mass changes are considered among
3920-557: The glacier was via a track along the north side of the Fox River valley and across a swingbridge. They could climb onto the ice at a lunch shelter at the Chalet Viewpoint, built in 1931 (and which burnt down in 1973). As the glacier retreated a gallery was built along the side of Cone Rock to allow access, until it retreated still further. Eventually the northern route became the main access road for tourists. Chancellor Hut
4000-428: The glacier will be accommodated by motion in the sediments, or if it'll be able to slide. A soft bed, with high porosity and low pore fluid pressure, allows the glacier to move by sediment sliding: the base of the glacier may even remain frozen to the bed, where the underlying sediment slips underneath it like a tube of toothpaste. A hard bed cannot deform in this way; therefore the only way for hard-based glaciers to move
4080-510: The glacier's surface area, more if the glacier calves icebergs. Ice in the accumulation zone is deep enough to exert a downward force that erodes underlying rock. After a glacier melts, it often leaves behind a bowl- or amphitheater-shaped depression that ranges in size from large basins like the Great Lakes to smaller mountain depressions known as cirques . The accumulation zone can be subdivided based on its melt conditions. The health of
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#17327876275394160-619: The ice at the bottom of the glacier move more slowly than ice at the top. In alpine glaciers, friction is also generated at the valley's sidewalls, which slows the edges relative to the center. Mean glacial speed varies greatly but is typically around 1 m (3 ft) per day. There may be no motion in stagnant areas; for example, in parts of Alaska, trees can establish themselves on surface sediment deposits. In other cases, glaciers can move as fast as 20–30 m (70–100 ft) per day, such as in Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbræ . Glacial speed
4240-420: The ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, has been estimated at 170,000 km . Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, holding with ice sheets about 69 percent of the world's freshwater. Many glaciers from temperate , alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause
4320-556: The ice to act as a lever that loosens the rock by lifting it. Thus, sediments of all sizes become part of the glacier's load. If a retreating glacier gains enough debris, it may become a rock glacier , like the Timpanogos Glacier in Utah. Abrasion occurs when the ice and its load of rock fragments slide over bedrock and function as sandpaper, smoothing and polishing the bedrock below. The pulverized rock this process produces
4400-488: The ice, called seracs . Crevasses can form in several different ways. Transverse crevasses are transverse to flow and form where steeper slopes cause a glacier to accelerate. Longitudinal crevasses form semi-parallel to flow where a glacier expands laterally. Marginal crevasses form near the edge of the glacier, caused by the reduction in speed caused by friction of the valley walls. Marginal crevasses are largely transverse to flow. Moving glacier ice can sometimes separate from
4480-411: The idea that meltwater, refreezing inside glaciers, caused the glacier to dilate and extend its length. As it became clear that glaciers behaved to some degree as if the ice were a viscous fluid, it was argued that "regelation", or the melting and refreezing of ice at a temperature lowered by the pressure on the ice inside the glacier, was what allowed the ice to deform and flow. James Forbes came up with
4560-418: The increased pressure can facilitate melting. Most importantly, τ D is increased. These factors will combine to accelerate the glacier. As friction increases with the square of velocity, faster motion will greatly increase frictional heating, with ensuing melting – which causes a positive feedback, increasing ice speed to a faster flow rate still: west Antarctic glaciers are known to reach velocities of up to
4640-423: The infrared OH stretching mode of the water molecule. (Liquid water appears blue for the same reason. The blue of glacier ice is sometimes misattributed to Rayleigh scattering of bubbles in the ice.) A glacier originates at a location called its glacier head and terminates at its glacier foot, snout, or terminus . Glaciers are broken into zones based on surface snowpack and melt conditions. The ablation zone
4720-548: The lower glacier today. The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River . During the last ice age , its ice reached beyond the present coastline, and the glacier left behind many moraines during its retreat. Lake Matheson formed as a kettle lake within one of these. In an 1890s report on "Tourist Attractions in the Okarito District", Charlie Douglas listed several sights in the Fox Glacier area, including
4800-679: The most deformation. Velocity increases inward toward the center line and upward, as the amount of deformation decreases. The highest flow velocities are found at the surface, representing the sum of the velocities of all the layers below. Because ice can flow faster where it is thicker, the rate of glacier-induced erosion is directly proportional to the thickness of overlying ice. Consequently, pre-glacial low hollows will be deepened and pre-existing topography will be amplified by glacial action, while nunataks , which protrude above ice sheets, barely erode at all – erosion has been estimated as 5 m per 1.2 million years. This explains, for example,
4880-445: The most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level . A large piece of compressed ice, or a glacier, appears blue , as large quantities of water appear blue , because water molecules absorb other colors more efficiently than blue. The other reason for the blue color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles. Air bubbles, which give a white color to ice, are squeezed out by pressure increasing
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#17327876275394960-531: The peaks to his death. Hine Hukatere was broken-hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain. Rangi the Sky Father took pity on her and froze them to form the glacier now known as Franz Josef; the glacier now known as Fox marks Tuawe's resting place. In 1857 local Māori led Pākehā Leonard Harper and Edwin Fox to both glaciers, the first Europeans to see them. In 1865, German geologist Julius von Haast
5040-725: The pooling of meltwater at the base of the glacier — perhaps delivered from a supraglacial lake — or the simple accumulation of mass beyond a critical "tipping point". Temporary rates up to 90 m (300 ft) per day have occurred when increased temperature or overlying pressure caused bottom ice to melt and water to accumulate beneath a glacier. In glaciated areas where the glacier moves faster than one km per year, glacial earthquakes occur. These are large scale earthquakes that have seismic magnitudes as high as 6.1. The number of glacial earthquakes in Greenland peaks every year in July, August, and September and increased rapidly in
5120-410: The pressure of the layers of ice and snow above it, this granular ice fuses into denser firn. Over a period of years, layers of firn undergo further compaction and become glacial ice. Glacier ice is slightly more dense than ice formed from frozen water because glacier ice contains fewer trapped air bubbles. Glacial ice has a distinctive blue tint because it absorbs some red light due to an overtone of
5200-403: The previous 100 years, it advanced between 1985 and 2009. In 2006, the average rate of advance was about a metre a week. In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and its vertical or overhanging faces regularly collapsed. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of
5280-404: The previous year, and just two months previously it had been repaired at a cost of $ 430,000. The Alpine Gardens landslide comprises 50–70 million cubic metres of rock and as of October 2020 is still active, moving 100–700 mm a day. The road has been closed indefinitely, with no practical solutions available for repairing it, and access to the glacier is now by helicopter. To compensate for
5360-523: The scenic vistas of its mountains, lakes and forests. Visitors to Weheka would stay in the Williams or Sullivan homesteads, until in 1928 the Sullivan brothers opened the first hotel in the valley, the 40-room Fox Glacier Hostel (which, expanded and refurbished several times over the years, is still operating as a hotel). Official glacier guiding began at this point, employing well-known mountaineers like Frank Alack, Harry Ayres, and Tom Christie. Access to
5440-567: The sea, often with an ice tongue , like Mertz Glacier . Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that terminate in the sea, including most glaciers flowing from Greenland, Antarctica, Baffin , Devon , and Ellesmere Islands in Canada, Southeast Alaska , and the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields . As the ice reaches the sea, pieces break off or calve, forming icebergs . Most tidewater glaciers calve above sea level, which often results in
5520-409: The stagnant ice above, forming a bergschrund . Bergschrunds resemble crevasses but are singular features at a glacier's margins. Crevasses make travel over glaciers hazardous, especially when they are hidden by fragile snow bridges . Below the equilibrium line, glacial meltwater is concentrated in stream channels. Meltwater can pool in proglacial lakes on top of a glacier or descend into the depths of
5600-423: The stress being applied, ice will act as an elastic solid. Ice needs to be at least 30 m (98 ft) thick to even start flowing, but once its thickness exceeds about 50 m (160 ft) (160 ft), stress on the layer above will exceeds the inter-layer binding strength, and then it'll move faster than the layer below. This means that small amounts of stress can result in a large amount of strain, causing
5680-438: The surface snowpack may experience seasonal melting. A subpolar glacier includes both temperate and polar ice, depending on the depth beneath the surface and position along the length of the glacier. In a similar way, the thermal regime of a glacier is often described by its basal temperature. A cold-based glacier is below freezing at the ice-ground interface and is thus frozen to the underlying substrate. A warm-based glacier
5760-505: The tiling, mantling and furnishing were completed by James Duncan Jr, assisted locally by Robert Emmett Clarke. Electricity for the hotel was supplied from a small hydro-electric plant built by the Sullivans 2 km ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 mi) away. Outbuildings included a separate staff accommodation wing with eight bedrooms, a billiard room, and a garage measuring 15 metres (50 ft) by 12 metres (40 ft). A large addition
5840-400: The track and took to the bush as being far better walking." By 1903 it had been improved and Dr Ebenezer Teichelmann described it as a good horse track. Douglas had previously surveyed the glacier with A.P. Harper and William Wilson, and had built the first hut there, known as the iron hut, near the 1896 glacier terminal. In the 1920s Westland was being marketed as a tourist destination for
5920-495: The view from Malcolm's Knob at the mouth of the Cook River . "If the road was cleared up through to Cook's [Flat] it would be an easy day's stage through to the Fox Glacier; one day would do that place, thence down to Malcolms Knob and Gillespies," he wrote. He also noted the road between the farming settlement of Weheka at Fox Glacier and Waiho to the north (now Franz Josef ) was very poor. "…when I came through that way, I left
6000-455: The village of Fox Glacier . It is a major tourist attraction and about 1000 people daily visit it during high tourist season. The glacier is known by local Māori as Te Moeka o Tuawe ('The bed of Tuawe'). According to oral tradition, Hine Hukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover Tuawe to climb with her. Tuawe was a less experienced climber than Hine Hukatere but loved to accompany her, until an avalanche swept him from
6080-417: The weight of the ice is supported by the underlying water, and the glacier is afloat. Glaciers may also move by basal sliding , where the base of the glacier is lubricated by the presence of liquid water, reducing basal shear stress and allowing the glacier to slide over the terrain on which it sits. Meltwater may be produced by pressure-induced melting, friction or geothermal heat . The more variable
6160-586: Was built in 1930–31 on the southwest face of Chancellor Ridge, now 200 m above the glacier. Planned by mountain guides Alec and Peter Graham in 1929, all the materials had to be packed up Fox Glacier manually in 1930 in the days before helicopter airlifts. It is the oldest remaining mountain hut in the Southern Alps still on its original site, and is a Category II Historic Building on the Heritage New Zealand list. At an altitude of 1200 m, it
6240-520: Was designed to provide climbing opportunities to tourists, rather than as a staging post for mountaineers climbing on the Great Divide. A hut was also built at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) on Craig's Peak (6,000 feet (1,800 m)) for overnight climbing trips. In the early 1930s and early 1940s roads were built up the northern and southern sides of the valley to improve access. The northern road led to main car park for tourists who wanted to walk up to
6320-491: Was made to the southeastern rear of the main building in the early 1950s, and the main facade gained flanking extensions in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2007 and more recently, significant refurbishment has been carried out. In 1989, Fox Glacier Hotel received historic place category 2 classification by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand). The building remains in use as
6400-469: Was the first to explore and survey the glaciers at the head of this valley, and named them Victoria and Albert, after the queen and her consort . The Victoria Glacier kept its name, but the lower part of the Albert Glacier was renamed in 1872 after a visit by then Premier of New Zealand Sir William Fox . Explorer Charlie Douglas had already visited the glacier himself in the 1860s, looking for
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