Live Ice

As the rupture of the Moreno Glacier approaches, the Santa Cruz provincial government has installed a live web cam so that spectators around the world can watch the event live. According to the daily Clarín, provincial authorities are asking airlines to add flights to El Calafate from the country's principal cities but, given the shaky logistics of Argentine air travel, this seems improbable.

Meanwhile, Wednesday (July 9) is Argentina's Independence Day. After observing the event at Tucumán's Casa de la Independencia (pictured here), President Cristina Fernández is expected to fly to El Calafate to witness the rupture, presuming it hasn't already happened. That's apparently a higher priority than any compromise with Argentine farmers who object to government export duties; her frosty attitude toward them has stalled efforts to repair a different sort of rupture - a political problem that needs a conciliatory solution.