Jorge Montt Glacier

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Jorge Montt Glacier
Type Tidewater glacier
Location Chile
Coordinates 48°22′S, 73°30′W
Area 464 km² [1]
Terminus Sealevel
Status Retreating [2]

Jorge Montt Glacier is a tidewater glacier located in the Aisén Region of Chile, south of the town of Caleta Tortel. It lies at the north end of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, within Bernardo O'Higgins National Park. The mouth of Pascua River is located in the vicinity of the glacier calving front.

The total drainage area of the glacier is about 510 km² (197 sq mi). The glacier’s ice is thinning most at low elevations, where air temperature is the highest. Ice thinning between 1975 and 2000 averaged 3.3 m (10.8 ft) per year over the entire glacier, and reached 18 m (59.1 ft) per year at the lowest elevations. The glacier calving front experienced a major retreat of 8.5 km (5.28 mi) in those 25 years as a result of rapid thinning. [2] The glacier calves off icebergs into the Baker Channel.

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