• Melting glacier reveals World War I ammunition

    Maffei Glauco / Trentino Italian / EPA

    Maffei Glauco / Trentino Italian / EPA

    Some of the more than 200 pieces of World War I ammunition which emerged from a melting glacier on a Trentino mountain peak are seen, Aug. 31. Each piece weighs between 7-10 kilos, and the 85-100 mm caliber explosive devices were found at an altitude of 3,200 meters, when a once-perennial glacier on the Ago de Nardis peak partially melted due to a recent heat wave that reached into Italy's highest peaks. The Finance Police Alpine rescue unit, operating in the area between Pinzolo and Madonna di Campiglio, saw brownish metal points emerging from the ice, got a fix on them via GPS, and then extricated the ordnance. The pieces were spread over a 100-square-meter area during series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Disposal specialists returned to dispose of the munitions.

  • Perito Moreno glacier experiences first major ice fall since 2008

    Stringer / Reuters

    Tourists wait to see the rupture of the leading edge of the Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, southern Argentina, March 2. As Perito Moreno moves forward, it cuts off a river feeding the lake. Water builds up pressure and slowly undermines the ice, forming a tunnel until ice comes tumbling down. The phenomenon repeats itself at irregular intervals, with the last major ice falls occurring in 2008. The glacier collapsed on March 4, 2012, after several large chunks broke off.

    Ariel Molina / EPA

    The Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, in southern Argentina, completed its break in the middle of a storm when the darkness and rain conspired to frighten hundreds of tourists waiting anxiously for the show on March 4. The breakdown process, which began on Feb. 29, was caused by the pressure of water above the ice dam, which began to crack to form an arch-shaped hole that ended up weakening and finally collapsing. The natural phenomenon happens infrequently -- from once a year to less then once a decade.

    Andres Arce / Reuters

    The Perito Moreno glacier is seen after the rupture of a massive ice wall near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, southern Argentina, March 4, 2012. The glacier, a massive tongue of ice in the Santa Cruz province that covers 250 square kilometres (97 square miles), advances yearly into a lake, known as Lago Argentino.

     

  • Jeff Schmaltz / NASA via AFP - Getty Images

    This NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team image obtained November 4, 2011 shows dust as it blew over the Gulf of Alaska in early November 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on November 2, 2011. Blowing toward the south-southwest, the dust plume remains discernible for roughly 100 kilometers (60 miles). The dust emerges from the Copper River Valley, which zigzags through the glacier-rich Chugach Mountains. The slow movement of glaciers over bedrock grinds the rock into glacial flour. This fine sediment is easily lofted into the air by winds blowing through mountain valleys. This image also shows swirls of iridescent green in the waters along the shore. The bright green probably results from sediment and phytoplankton. Dust can fertilize phytoplankton, prompting big blooms, but the microscopic organisms also thrive in high-latitude seas especially near coastlines, without dust.

    Glaciers pulverize bedrock sending 60-mile dust cloud over Gulf of Alaska

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  • Alpine glacier covered in canvas to prevent summer melting

    Michaela Rehle / Reuters

    Workers install canvas covers on the glacier ice on top of Germany's highest mountain, the 2,962 metre (9,718 feet) Zugspitze, near the southern Bavarian resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on May 10. To keep ski-lift sections safe for the winter season, the glacier ice is protected from melting between May and September.