Amy Postcard 2

New Zealand is one of the few places on earth that still has glaciers. When glaciers begin to melt, often a river is formed. One example of this is the Waiho River in the South Island of New Zealand. Behind the river is the Franz Josef glacier. The river drains into the Tasman Sea. The water is very cloudy in color, and is very turbid and murky. This could be caused by the high amounts of precipitation in the area and high release amounts from the mountains behind the river. Throughout the river there are bigger boulders and rocks left there by the glacier retreating in the past. Also, glacier flour is left behind; this is from the glacier dragging over the bedrock. Also, due to the type of river that it is, you can often see rocks floating in the river. This is loose terrain from the mountain, where ice melts from the glacier and the debris that has acquired on the top falls down. Around this area you can see small moraines left that formed. As you look downstream, there is the Waiho loop moraine that is flat and was formed during the last ice age when the ice was retreating.