Shafts of snow sculpted by sun

March 28, 2006 at 2:01 pm - More than 2 years ago

From Baltimore, at a meeting of the American Physical Society

SUN KISSED. In the high Andes, these pinnacles of snow, called penitentes, may form because trapped sunlight erodes zones between pillars. J. Corripio/Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology

On the surfaces of many glaciers high in the Andes Mountains, towering spikes of snow called penitentes crowd the terrain like legions of white ghosts.

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