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Pio XI Glacier (Bruggen Glacier), Chile

At the head of scenic Eyre Fjord is situated the longest glacier in the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica.  The monumental ice-mass of the Brüggen Glacier fills the fjord to a width of 4.5 kilometers (3 miles) and covers an area of 1,265 square kilometers (488 square miles). Colossal ice cliffs rise to a height 75 meters (246’) and are cut by deep-blue crevasses, and free-standing ice pillars known as seracs. Some 66 kilometers (41 miles) upstream of where it meets the ocean, the Brüggen Glacier merges with the ice of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Unlike other glaciers worldwide, it advanced significantly from 1945 to 1976 adding nearly 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) to its toe. Located deep within the boundaries of Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, it was named after the German-Chilean geologist Juan Brüggen Messtorff. Bernardo O'Higgins National Park is one of the last refuges for the small Chilean deer known as a huemul and species such as the Andean condor and marine otter may also be found here.