Seco Glacier, Glacier in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Seco Glacier is a glacier in Santa Cruz Province that stretches across the southern Patagonian Ice Field as part of Los Glaciares National Park. Its white ice surfaces rise steeply and form one of many frozen water masses in this remote region.

Seco Glacier lies in Los Glaciares National Park, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, and covers 4 km². It is in a period of retreat, so the eroded land tongue it carved when it drained into the Spegazzini arm of Lake Argentino is still visible. That dry bed gave the glacier its name; it is also called Totalizador after a totalizing pluviometer of the Instituto Nacional del Hielo Continental Patagónico installed on it, which records 1500 to 1800 mm of annual precipitation.

The name Seco (dry) comes from the eroded land tongue visible during its retreat, left when it still drained into the Spegazzini arm of Lake Argentino. It is also called Totalizador after the totalizing pluviometer of the Instituto Nacional del Hielo Continental Patagónico installed on the ice, which records 1500 to 1800 mm of annual precipitation.

Seco Glacier is a usual stop on boat tours from Punta Bandera heading to Spegazzini Glacier, the tallest in Los Glaciares National Park. The glacier is seen from the water and from viewpoints, not climbed on foot, so no climbing gear is needed. Cold, windy weather and spray on deck call for warm, waterproof clothing.

The glacier's name comes from its retreat: the eroded tongue of land it once occupied, when it drained into the Spegazzini arm of Lake Argentino, is still visible. It is also called Totalizador after a totalizing pluviometer of the Instituto Nacional del Hielo Continental Patagónico installed on it, recording 1500 to 1800 mm of precipitation a year.