RETREAT OF GLACIERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 6

RETREAT OF GLACIERS

CLIMATIC CHANGES Does the extraordinary shrinking of New Zealand glaciers noticed since the days'of the early pioneers indicate a continuing change in New Zealand's climate or is it purely a temporary weather cycle? This question i was raised, during the course of a lecture upon glacial retreat by Mr. A. P. Harper, A.C., to the Alpine Club on Thursday evening. Mr. S. A. Wiren presided. Mr. Harper .showed a number of slides of New Zealand glaciers taken in the eighties and nineties of last century, and compared them with similar. photographs taken in recent years. These indicated clearly not, only. that the ends or terminal faces .of the glaciers had shrunk in that. interval, but that the surface level of New Zealand glaciers had also fallen. In fifty years the end of the Franz Josef Glacier had retreated approximately, ,400 yards, and ,it was now 120 ft to 150 ft lower at the. sides.. The Horace Walker Glacier has gone back half a mile in 42 years, leaving a beautiful lake where it had retreated. This lake, in Mr. Harper's opinion, would be silted up in another generation. A photograph taken 50 years ago of the face of the Andy Glacier showed a lake which no longer existed, according to a recent photograph. A number of slides were also shown of moraine heaps and ice polishing in Canterbury and Westland, showing that New Zealand glaciers were once of a very much greater size than they are now. , The Waimakariri Glacier at one time must have been about 54 miles long, the Rangitata about 58 miles, and'the great Waitaki Glacier about 112 miles long. On the West Coast, a- large number of the glaciers actually ran into the sea, and Open Bay Island, off .the south coast of Westland, was nothing more than a great moraine heap deposited in the sea by a great glacier flowing down from the Alps. Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki were caused by the water banking up behind old moraine's. Slides were also shown of Lake Loen in Norway, which was recently struck by the great landslide. Professor Cotton said that New Zealand was still in an ice age, and that although glaciers might at the moment be retreating, apparently their movements were rhythmic, with successive shrinking and expansion. The presentday shrinking had been observed both in the Alps of Europe and elsewhere, Apparently the movements of the glaciers were due to a climatic cycle, although it had. not been determined what was the exact cause of the climatic change. The evidence certainly seemed to show that in past ages New Zealand did not have the same distinct climatic zones as at present. /. ■ An interesting lecture, accompanied by very beautiful alpine lantern slides, was given by Mr. N. Denton, the subtect being a climbing expedition at the lead of the Franz Josef Glacier.