NZICESCAPES IMAGES » clouds http://nzicescapes.com/blog Glacier, Ice and West Coast Stock Images New Zealand Thu, 19 Oct 2017 01:23:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Glacial Valleys http://nzicescapes.com/blog/2010/12/glacial-valleys/ http://nzicescapes.com/blog/2010/12/glacial-valleys/#comments Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:04:33 +0000 admin http://nzicescapes.com/blog/?p=166 Franz Josef Glacier

Beautiful pastel colours of the sunset above Franz Josef Glacier photographed from Centennial Hut toward the Tasman Sea visible on a horizon. Tusk Rocks in a foreground, Chamberlin Snowfield right, Agassiz Glacier left - Westland National Park, West Coast, New Zealand

The most destructive and powerful hand of Mother Nature lies, arguably, in the cryosphere. We may not see it doing much immediate damage, but by observing the landscape we can see enormous changes in our environment caused by glaciers. One of the very typical and most visible footprints glaciers leave behind are our, often ice free, valleys. Entire mountainsides were remodeled by

glacial action leaving only steep valley walls behind. In the upper reaches of the Franz Josef Glacier there is massive pressure from the build up of up to 300m of ice and snow. Associated erosional forces combine to create a bowl shaped depression in the underlying rock called a Cirque, with the snow and ice field contained in the cirque being called the Neve. As gravity encourages ice down the valley the weight of the ice presses downwards and outwards scouring the valleys into a distinctive glaciated U-shape. These are much broader and flatter floored than the V-shaped valleys carved by rivers.

]]> http://nzicescapes.com/blog/2010/12/glacial-valleys/feed/ 0 Weather on the West Coast http://nzicescapes.com/blog/2010/05/weather-on-the-west-coast/ http://nzicescapes.com/blog/2010/05/weather-on-the-west-coast/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 05:11:55 +0000 admin http://nzicescapes.com/blog/?p=39 New Zealand owes its stunning beauty to its location on Earth. This applies particularly well to the West Coast of the South Island. Due to the predominant weather patterns in this part of the globe, the South Island faces the weather sweeping in as a persistent westerly airstream from the Tasman Sea. Moisture laden clouds brought in by these westerly winds have a gigantic barrier in their way – The Southern Alps. The Alps force the clouds to climb into higher and colder altitudes so the clouds finally give up and release the moisture in form of rain, and around the Main Divide as snow. The annual precipitation on the West Coast reaches 16 meters in places, making the West Coast one of the wettest places on Earth.

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