Higher temperatures and rainfall that weaken ice walls caused part of a hanging glacier to break off at a national park in Chile's Patagonia region in an event captured on video by tourists, Trend reports citing Reuters.
In a video that went viral Monday, a glacier that sits atop a mountain about 200 meters (656 feet) high rumbled and broke off at Queulat National Park, located more than 1,200 kilometers(746 miles) south of Chile's capital.
Detachments between masses of ice are normal, says University of Santiago climate scientist Raul Cordero, but he noted that the frequency of these events is troubling.
"Because this type of event is triggered by heat waves or by intense liquid precipitation events and both things are also happening more and more frequently throughout the planet, not only in Chile," Cordero said.
According to Cordero, there was a heat wave with "very abnormal" temperatures in that area of Patagonia before the collapse.