Glaciers of New Zealand

New Zealand contains many glaciers, mostly located near the Main Divide of the Southern Alps in the South Island.

Most of the glaciers have thinned measurably and have reduced in size, and the snow accumulation zones have risen in elevation during the 20th century.

The retreat of these glaciers has been marked by expanding proglacial lakes and terminus region thinning.

These large, rapidly flowing glaciers situated on steep slopes have been very reactive to small mass-balance changes.

[3] Hence glacier advance in a few locations is regarded as due to transient local weather conditions which brought more precipitation and cloudier, cooler summers since 2002.

Franz Josef Glacier .
The Mueller, Hooker and Tasman glaciers have continued to retreat rapidly in recent years. Notice the larger terminal lakes, the retreat of the white ice (ice free of moraine cover), and the higher moraine walls due to ice thinning. Photo.