Brüggen Glacier, Tidewater glacier in Magellan Region, Chile

Brüggen Glacier is a tidewater glacier in the Magellan Region that flows about 66 kilometers from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, making it the longest glacier in the southern hemisphere outside Antarctica. Its terminus splits into several outlets that descend steeply into the fjord system, where walls of ice meet deep water directly.

Between 1945 and 1976 Brüggen Glacier advanced about 5 km across Eyre Fjord, reaching the western shore by 1962 and cutting Lake Greve off from the sea. It kept moving north and south in the fjord until it stabilized near its present position. The advance added nearly 60 square kilometres of ice over more than 10 km from north to south.

The glacier carries two names: Pío XI, given by Spanish explorers after a pope, and Brüggen, honouring German geologist Juan Brüggen Messtorff, after whom the Dr. Juan Brüggen icefield is also named. Expedition cruise ships sail up Eyre Fjord to the terminus, and the ice front can be seen from the water.

Expedition cruise ships reach the Pío XI terminus by sailing up Eyre Fjord from the open sea, so the ice face is seen from the water rather than from land. The glacier descends the western slope of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field into the fjord, and floating ice can block the approach. Check conditions with the operator before departure.

Unlike most glaciers worldwide, Brüggen has grown by about 60 square kilometers in recent decades while others are shrinking, making it an unusual exception among southern Patagonian ice masses. Scientists continue to study why this glacier behaves differently from the broader pattern of global ice retreat.