Qori Kalis outlet glacier at Quelccaya Ice Cap - 2012 by Doug Hardy

Panorama of Qori Kalis glacier and the valley below, in the Cordillera Vilcanota of Peru.

Recession of this outlet glacier - the largest flowing from Quelccaya Ice Cap - has been exceptionally well documented by Henry Brecher and Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University. In the late-1980s there was no lake (see slide #43 at www.geo.umass.edu/climate/quelccaya/fieldwork_2012 /); the glacier was against recessional moraines (not visible here). Today the lake covers ~34 hectares and has a maximal depth of ~60 meters.

For additional information on the ice retreat, see: Brecher & Thompson, 1993 (Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, vol. 590) and Thompson et al., 2006 (Proc. of the Natl. Acad. Sci., vol. 103)

There is a remarkable amount of detail visible in this 170° view, comprised of nearly 1000 megabytes of data(!) - all provided via a "point and shoot" camera mounted on the GigaPan. The "Stitcher Notes" contain more information about the photos. Note for example that the original photos were slightly under-exposed, requiring a bit of post-processing to make shadow detail visible.

Better detail of the glacier is available in #110306 (<
gigapan.com/gigapans/110306>;)