Franz Josef Glacier
Franz Josef Glacier in 2001
Franz Josef Glacier in 2011
The ( English: Franz Josef Glacier, Māori: Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere ) Franz Josef Glacier is a 10 km long glacier in Westland National Park on the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on the west side of the Southern Alps. Like its southern neighbor, the Fox Glacier, flowing from its shallower accumulation area the steep western flank of this mountain down. It drains through the Waiho River in the Tasman Sea.
In 1852, named Leonard Harper Franz -Josef and Fox glacier is crossed by Victoria and Albert, the then British royal couple. Since he did not officially made it known he was named in 1865 by German explorer Julius von Haast to Franz Joseph I of Austria.
The glacier was about 150,000 years ago so large that it completely included the Mount Cook and the surrounding mountains. The multiple melting and regrowth of the glacier with the result that towards the sea several hills have formed in the valley, which were formed from the moraine, which has put off the glacier. The Franz Josef Glacier is a temperate glacier and flows per day about half a meter. One crashed on the glacier aircraft was released so after relatively short seven years from the ice. The high speed also results from all the water that flows over waterfalls right and left of the ice under the glacier and thus serves as a kind of lubricant.
The result of the glaciers is due to the special situation of the tectonic plates on which are Mount Cook and its surrounding mountains. On the west coast of New Zealand meeting point between two continental plates, and so have a very high mountain range formed directly on the coast. The large amount of rainfall results from the fact that warm, moist air is brought across the Tasman Sea and cools rapidly at the high massif and ausregnet. This leads to the west side of the South Island of New Zealand to about ten times more rainfall than the east coast.
Like the Fox Glacier and the Franz Josef Glacier was once so great that he calved into the sea. Even today it is still located together with the Fox Glacier one of the lowest above sea level ( 400 m) mid-latitude glaciers. After the glacier between the end of the 19th century and 1982 was significantly decreased and had lost more than 3 km in length, he began to grow by around 1 km since 1982. Since 1999, the trend reversed again and the glacier has lost again to the ground.
Thus, the Franz Josef Glacier is one of the few large glaciers that are far less affected by the global glacier melt. By the end of the century is still expected that the glacier will lose another 5 km in length and about 38 % of its mass.