Shrinking glaciers in New Zealand

New Zealand contains over 3,000 glaciers, most of which are on the South Island’s Southern Alps. The glaciers have been retreating since 1890, with short periods of small advances. In 2007, scientists at the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) attributed this change primarily to global warming. Without substantial climate cooling, they said, the glaciers would not return to their previous sizes. The differences between 1990 and 2017 can be seen in this pair of images, which include the Mueller Glacier, Hooker Glacier and Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s longest. 1990 image: Landsat 8 satellite. 2017 image: The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) onboard Terra satellite. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech.