Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Qolkepunku Glacier in Peruvian Andes

Qolkepunku image by Andrew McLeish in Time 

High in the Peruvian Andes, the Sinkakara Valley is the home of the Qolkepunku Glacier. This mountain of ice was seen by the Incas as a god, and its waters were considered holy.

Today pilgrims continue to enact rituals at the site and carry home chunks of the venerated ice and runoff water from the glacier.

Like so many of our earth's ice sheets, this one is melting. In fact, all 200 of Peru's glaciers are receding, and may be gone within the next ten years.

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