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The Tasman Glacier
The glacier flows south on the eastern flanks of New Zealand’s highest mountains, Aoraki/Mt Cook and Mt. Tasman.- Tasman Glacier is by far New Zealand’s largest glacier too! It contains nearly 1/3 of all glacier ice in New Zealand. Currently the glacier is 23km long and 1-2km wide and very deep.
- Snowfall during Spring and Winter can be up to 12.5m at the top of the glacier.
- The glacier terminates into a glacial lake that formed as late as 1989/90 (Tasman Lake). The lake is expanding rapidly – it’s currently 5 km long and up to 240m deep.
- ‘Calving’ of icebergs into the glacial lake reduces between 30-400m of the glacier each year. You can see these icebergs floating in the lake.
- Tasman Glacier is retreating. By 2045 it may have retreated another 5km as the lake expands.
