Glaciers Come in All Shapes

Glaciers come in all shapes and sizes, offering the viewer to describe the form in ones opinion. Each observer may describe the same glacier in a plethora of ways. The valleys and streams, curves and bends are ever changing. The supporting points in the article written by Ehrlich (2004) contain facts as well as opinions that support the idea of one's own perception and the factual characteristics of the Perito Moreno Glacier.

The facts stated in the article include information that about the size of Perito being 257 square kilometers across. In the center there is a two meter advance daily. There are warm and cold glaciers this depends on the altitude and latitude. Cold glaciers do not slide as easily, these glaciers are affixed to rocks. Warm glaciers have internal melt-streams at every level and torrents of water flow out from under the ice at the glaciers foot.

Further into the article Ehrlich (2004) describes the glacier in a personal manner. She compares it to the human body describing cheek bones, teeth etc. In conjunction with the descriptions of the forms that can be taken by the glacier she also explains the fluctuations in mass and form that take place every day. Throughout the writing comparisons are made to everyday encounters of the average man or woman. She expresses that the glacier balances its gains and losses like a banker. A glacier can give away more than it takes in. A glacier is an archivist and historian. It registers every fluctuation in weather. It saves everything no matter how small or big, including pollen, dust, heavy metals, bugs, and minerals. As snow becomes firm and then ice, oxygen bubbles are trapped in the glacier, providing samples of ancient atmosphere: carbon dioxide and methane. Records of temperatures and levels of atmospheric gases from before industrialization can be compared with those after a mere 150 years. A glacier is time incarnate.

The article gives clarity not only into the difference that can be seen among various glaciers; but also the many ways that a glacier can be described and characterized. All of these aspects come into play when analyzing the current reading. The reader is able to not only see the factual points associated with the Perito Moreno glacier, they are also able to envision the slops and curves, lines and spaces seen in this massive form.

In contrast it appears that the article wants to draw attention to the glaciers that are being lost, and that with the heating and melting we are constantly loosing pieces of history (Ehrlich, 2004). This point can be someone obscure as one follows through the reading. It is possible to get wrapped in the characteristics of the glacier as well as the comparisons, while losing the understanding of the lose that takes place with the expanding and contracting of the glacier. It is evident that the writer has a passion not only for glaciers in general but especially for this particular glacier.