Ice Music! Patagonia’s Astonishing Symphony of Glaciers

Visually impressive, sure! I was startled and fascinated by their constant, changing soundtrack, so unexpected from this vast frozen panorama of limitless shades of blue ice formations. Shifting, moving, sometimes calving in great, majestic glacial chunks. Our first views were of the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate Argentina’s Los Glaciales National Park with an ice field that controls the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water!

Once every four years or so, the extremity of the moving glacier bangs into the Península Magallanes, separating Lago Argentino Lake into two parts. The side called “Brazo Rico” fills up, putting pressure on the underside of the glacier until it floods into the main part of the lake.

This is the “rupture”: an extremely impressive natural phenomenon for those who are lucky enough to be close by at the right time.

Infinite shades of blue

With its dizzying peaks, mysterious caves and impressive crevasses, the blues of the Perito Moreno glacier defy description. From translucent to darkest midnight: a palette of blues turns ice to fine art.

Under the pressure of accumulated snowfalls, columns of ice rise up on the glacier like sculpted walls, and you can regularly hear sections of ice coming away: a completely unforgettable sensory journey.

This massive ice wall of the Perito Moreno Glacier is almost three miles wide and rises close to 250 feet of dynamic and constant movement.

And with that movement…SOUND… along with spectacular and very rare ice falls that I was so fortunate to capture on my iPhone.

Upsala and Spegazzini Glaciers

A full day’s excursion by boat allowed more spectacular glacier-watching and another front row view of these natural wonders. Departing from Puerto Bandera, we sailed across the north arm of Lago Argentino to reach the Upsala Channel with sightings of huge Barrier Icebergs and South America’s longest Upsala Glacier.

Then the monumental Spegazzini, highest among all others in this national park, formed over thousands of years, as snow and ice accumulated in the high mountains.

The snow and ice compressed and formed layers, slowly transforming into glacial ice.

Enjoy my front row view!

One more thing about glacial ice, calving and the whole experience…once that giant piece of ice breaks off and drops to the lake, there is a moment of silence as the ice sinks and displaces its identical volume of water. The responding swell was a surprise…and we were happy not to be closer!