Quake shakes 30m tonnes of ice off glacier

[The Straight Story]

Quake shakes 30m tonnes of ice off glacier


The magnitude 6.3 earthquake that devastated Christchurch was strong enough to shake 30 million tonnes of ice loose from Tasman Glacier at Aoraki Mt Cook National Park.

Passengers of two explorer boats were hit with waves of up to 3.5 metres as the ice crashed into Terminal Lake under the Tasman Glacier at the mountain.

Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Village tourism manager Denis Callesen said huge icebergs formed in the lake, which were then rocked by massive waves for 30 minutes.

The danger to passengers could have been worse if not for safety proceedures put in place when it was suspected the area was becoming unstable, he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708071

[ensho]

1. I saw some pics - it was like turning part of the glacier into ice cubes

amazing