page_title: Tasman Glacier
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Tasman Glacier / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Lower Tasman Glacier towards Minarets, approximately 4 km wide at this point. The slow-moving glacier ice has over time been completely covered with gravelly debris up to where it curves out of the upper valley, visible in the distance. Malte Brun Range on the right.
context_page_description: Haupapa / Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand, and one of several large glaciers which flow south and east towards the Mackenzie Basin from the Southern Alps in New Zealand's South Island.
context_section_description: At 23.5 kilometres (14.6 mi) in length, Tasman Glacier is still New Zealand's longest glacier, despite shrinking considerably from the 1990s onwards. It is as much as 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) wide and 600 metres (2,000 ft) thick, and lies entirely within the borders of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. The glacier covers an area of 101 square kilometres (39 sq mi) and starts at a height of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) above sea level. Snowfall during the winter and spring seasons may accumulate up to 50 metres (160 ft). After the summer melt, 7 metres (23 ft) may remain in the high altitude glacier head.
  The Tasman flows south west from Hochstetter Dome and Mount Elie De Beaumont alongside the southern slopes of the Minarets peak and south along the eastern flank of New Zealand's two highest mountains, Mount Tasman and its higher southern neighbour Aoraki / Mount Cook.
  Although its upper reaches are snow-covered, rocks carried by the glacier are exposed by ablation along its course, and the lower glacier is entirely rock-covered.  The rock cover helps insulate the ice from the sunlight and slows down the melting process. Tributaries in the lower parts are the Rudolf Glacier, Forrest Ross Glacier, Kaufmann Glacier, Haast Glacier, Hochstetter Glacier, and Ball Glacier.
  The glacial terminal lake is met by the meltwater of the Murchison Glacier, which approaches from the northeast and flows alongside the Tasman Glacier outside the moraine wall. The waters of Tasman Lake flow into the Tasman River and flow south joining the Hooker River draining the proglacial lakes on the Hooker and Mueller Glaciers. The Tasman River exhibits a braided characteristic, and flows south into Lake Pukaki. They eventually flow into the Waitaki River and to the Pacific Ocean north of Oamaru.
caption: Lower Tasman Glacier
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "X-Pro1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.11", "Image DateTime": "2016:02:06 20:41:16", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "336", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:01:14 12:49:43", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:01:14 12:49:43", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "16/5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "501/50", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "228/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "33/100", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "407/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4896", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1760", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2092", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2092", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "61", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}