The Quelccaya Ice Cap in the heart of the Peruvian Andres,
is the largest tropical body of ice in the world.
The ice cap is at an average altitude of 5,470 meters (18,600 ft)
and spans an area of 44 square kilometers (17 miles).
As the ice cap is retreating,
it is exposing almost perfectly preserved plant specimens
dating back 5,200 years,
indicating that it has been more than 50 centuries
since the ice cap was smaller than it is today.
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3 comments:
Hey, that is really interesting... But oh, what have we done to this planet?
And hope your leg or foot is better -- somehow I am reminded me of the Laurel and Hardy film where Ollie is in the hospital with his foot tied up, and Ollie comes and all hell breaks loose...
You made me laugh!
I spent five incredibly boring days, with my foot elevated, pretending that I liked doing nothing . Now it is almost as if nothing had happened and I almost certainly will never have an ingrown toe nail there again. A great relief.
On the subject of 'future opportunities in science', this sounds like the time to be training mountain climbing botanists with a penchant for high altitude living. Sometimes 'science' involves plumbing earth's depths but just as often it can be as boring as plumbing, period.
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