Yvonne Tahana
New Zealand Herald News
2/23/2011
Tourists got to see the magnificent blue undersides of the icebergs. Photo / Glacier Explorers
Tourists rode rolling waves on Tasman Lake after yesterday’s earthquake caused 30 million tonnes of ice to break off – “calve” – from the country’s longest glacier.
At Mt Cook village the quake was felt as a minute-long gentle tremor – it did not cause any injuries. There, the 6.3 monster put on a benign and beautiful show.
Glacier Explorers had 16 tourists and two staff members out on two boats when the quake hit. At the time, they knew nothing of it.
American visitor Val Neuman said the boat he was on had gone out only 500m from the jetty at the southern end of the lake when the sound of ice splintering startled him.
“We heard a loud crack, like a high-powered rifle, looked about, didn’t see much happening. We motored on for three or four minutes around the icebergs at the lower end of the lake, then one of the fellows asked, ‘Well, where is the actual glacier?”‘
Guide Gerry Lemon pointed to the upper end of the lake 6km away.
“At that very moment my wife focused on that area with her camera and the whole front of the glacier cut loose and fell into the lake,” Mr Neuman said.
Mr Lemon said the moment was spectacular. An estimated 250m of the glacier’s terminal wall is below the waterline and the slab – 1.2km wide and 75m-long – that calved its way up out of the lake was like a submarine breaking the surface, he said.
“You could see this huge big piece of blue ice coming up out of the water. It was amazing, a whole wall of water, maybe 50 or 60m high came off the ice.
“All the icebergs started rolling, every single one on the lake was rocking and rolling. They’re exposing their beautiful blue undersides.”
The 1.2km behemoth has since broken up. Yesterday morning there had been only 10 icebergs on the lake and now there are more than 30. Their intense colours, caused by refracted light, stand in sharp contrast to the lake’s sediment-rich water.
Read the rest at the NZ Herald News where you can also read more stories about yesterday’s earthquake. Readers may make donations to the New Zealand Red Cross here.
