It’s a rare sight to witness a glacier break apart and fall into the sea.
But a handful of people were lucky enough to witness the extraordinary phenomena, recently, at the Bruggen Glacier in Chile. A tall spire of ice broke free from the iceberg, then crumbled into the sea below with explosive force. And it was all caught on camera.
Watch below.
Calving glaciers, and the subsequent waves they create, have long been a holy grail for novelty surf spot enthusiasts. But just like the rarity in viewing them, it’s also extremely difficult to be in the right place at the right time to surf them.
As for this calving section of the Bruggen, the video cuts short before a wave is seen from the falling hunk of ice. There is a large explosion as the mass falls into the water, though, and had the cameras kept filming, most likely a wave would’ve followed.
But these weren’t surfers watching the glacier fall, clearly.
Related: 100-Foot Glacier Falls in Greenland, Creates Huge Waves (Video)
For more information on the Bruggen, here’s a snippet from Chile Travel & News:
“Pío XI Glacier, also known as Brüggen Glacier, is a remote icy giant in Chilean Patagonia and the largest glacier in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica. Named after the German-Chilean geologist Johannes Brüggen Messtorff, the striking natural formation is located within Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, in the Magallanes Region—the southernmost part of Chile.
“Part of the vast Southern Patagonian Ice Field, Pio XI is one of the top natural wonders in the country and a must-see for anyone interested in glaciers in Chile. The ice field itself is the third-largest continental ice mass in the world, after Antarctica and Greenland.
“Today, the Pio XI Glacier stretches 64 kilometers in length and features a 6-kilometer-wide front, with icy cliffs rising 70 to 80 meters above sea level. Covering nearly 1,300 km², it holds the title of the largest glacier in South America outside Antarctica.”
Related: The World’s Largest Iceberg Is Falling Apart (Video)