Tyndall’s Trail of Bergs

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed Tyndall Glacier in southern Chile through a veil of clouds on May 10, 2026. Fragments that had calved from the glacier floated across Lago Geikie, which formed at Tyndall’s terminus around 1940. Tyndall drains the Southern Patagonian Icefield and has been shrinking since the end of the Little Ice Age about 150 years ago.

Thinning ice cut off an outlet to Lago Tyndall by 2010 and exposed bedrock along the glacier’s eastern edge that contains ichthyosaur fossils. Calving and thinning have reduced the glacier’s volume. Using the Sun’s position visible in the photograph, Pelto estimated the glacier’s front rose about 30–40 meters above the lake in May 2026.

Chile, southern Chile

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