Los Cuernos-The Horns

by Richard Gehlbach

Title

Los Cuernos-The Horns

Artist

Richard Gehlbach

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Photography

Description

The Patagonia area of South America was the winning location for a worldwide survey that asked people to vote for the 8th wonder of the world, if there was one. It truly deserves that accolade. The area is located along the Argentine and Chile border. It includes the third largest ice field in the world. Many glaciers are still located there and the Paine Horne is an example of the ice age glaciers that carved these majestic mountains and created the glacier lakes as they receded 10,000 years ago.

This particular image shows a lot of details. If you notice the �U� shaped valley between the two peaks there is still what looks like some snow in the bottom. Actually I zoomed in quite a bit to obtain this photo and unfortunately there is nothing in the picture to really provide any scale. That snow is actually the remnants of the glacier that carved the valley. The face of that glacier is probably 75 to 100 feet high. If people were standing in front of it, they would look like little dots.

If you also note the yellowish-brown rock face to the left and follow it upwards towards the peak, you will notice an abrupt change to a darker color. This feature demonstrates how tall the glacier was during the Ice Age 10,000 years ago. As it receded, it pulled away the softer rock and sediment exposing the bare granite underneath. Since the glacier did not cover the peak, it retained the softer rock and sediment and thus the darker coloration.

Torre Del Paine National Park in Chile is a fantastic place to visit, hike, and camp if you are ever in that area. It is one of the few places I would not hesitate to revisit.

Uploaded

February 16th, 2017

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags