SPACEPHOTOS

The patagonian ice field is situated in Los Glaciales National Park, Argentina. It is the largest continental ice field outside the Antarctic. (Greenland is an island.) With a length of about 600 kilometers and a surface of nearly 2,300 square kilometers, this area is four times larger than the Alps. The picture above shows the Viedma glacier flowing to Lake Viedma. Color corresponds to elevation, based on data acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The explorer Antonia de Viedma visited this region first in 1782. At the top of the image, just to the right of the glacier, is the 3,375-meter-high Mount Fitzroy. Because of the steepness of the mountain and the persistently poor weather it is very hard to climb.