GLACIER ON THE MOVE.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1924, Page 4

GLACIER ON THE MOVE.

ER ANZ JOSEF FOR.MING AN ICE WAVE. ' A very impressive phenomenon is visible on tlie Franz Josef Glacier in South Westland tlii.s season. Enormous masses of ice have piled up on the Inchest elevations, and a great ice-wave is forming, which All' I’eter Graham, the we-Jl-known 'Alpine guide, predicts, will insult in an extension of the glacier. Glacial movements are slow, and what i.s happening thousands of feet above the terminal face to-day will lie reflected lower down only in the course of some veals. The glacier in 1907 showed the effects of a great ice wave. It rose in volume 200 feet, until ii topped some immense rocks on the Northern side, and tourists were able to walk out from a balcony right on the ice. Then the glacier rose further, and sv.vpt away the iron railings on this rock, ft extended down the river dal nearer the bush, cove: ing up .several rocks 200 feet in height. The glacier then commenced to recede, and these rocks now stand bare and isolated in a valley. Now, however, the onward movement, which can be predicted from the condition of the great ice-falls thousands of feet higher up the glacier has been resumed, and Air Graham informed a correspondent that the glacier is likely to again go forward about, seven chains, and rise .about 200 feet. The evidences of activity are plain. The glacier is well crevassed. pioriding lovely colouring effects, and there are some extremely beautiful ice eaves near the terminal face.

As tile Franz Josef glacier originates in snowfields at a height of 9000 feet, its movement is comparatively rapid. Tests made by the Graham brothers show that one mile from the end. the movement is eighteen inches annually, and at the Defiance Hut about half way up. where the angle isteeper, the movement is between three and four feet each year.