Rock knob surrounded by glacier ice
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Rock knob surrounded by glacier ice

by Stefan Winkler

The rock knob within the accummulation area of Fanz Josef Glacier in the Southern Alps of New Zealand withstands the constantly moving ice to cover it entirely. Although a very dynamic glacier and at the end of a period of frontal advance at the time the image was taken, the ice thickness was not large enough to cover the rock knob. The crevasses that devloped at the contacts of ice and rock knob, and those that developed within the glacier's ice fall itself show how dynamic the glacier was.