Grey glacier splits up into three different lobes once it reaches Grey Lake. The Nunatak Island is a piece of land that divides the glacier into two.
Glacier Grey measures 28 kilometers in length for a total area of 270+ kilometers squared. It starts on the west side of the Patagonian Andes Mountains and ends at the shores of Grey Lake.
On average it measures 30 meters high and about 6 kilometers across.
It is believed that 18,000 years ago the original glacier covered all of Argentina and the south of Chile.
The two ice fields remaining, the Southern Patagonia and the Northern Patagonia, equal 17,200 kilometers squared of white colonies. White colonies are areas completely covered in ice or glaciers.
Some peaks in these colonies reach more than 300 meters high and most are in Chile.
Although Glacier Grey is one of the smallest individual glaciers in Southern Patagonia, its dazzling color, resembling a precious stone, is easily seen from space.
Its uniqueness is complemented by Lake Grey, 500 meters deep and filled with the glacier itself and the three entry points.
Glacier Grey is a temperate glacier meaning that it is hovering just at the melting point, as opposed to a polar glacier. Since liquid water is found in the glacier’s ice, small changes in the atmospheric temperature could have a major impact on the overall glacier. In February 2019, two icebergs totaling thousands of square meters broke off from the old glacier. Although some think it could be part of a natural phenomenon, the detachment of ice from Glacier Grey has become more frequent throughout the years. Experts blame it on climate change causing stronger rainfalls, which has led to higher water levels in the lake.

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GLACIER GREY, PATAGONIA CHILE
Torres del Paine National Park

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