evidence: The northern and southern lobes of the Patagonian icefield are what’s left of a much larger ice sheet that reached its maximum size about 18,000 years ago. Though just a fraction of their previous size, the modern icefields remain the largest expanse of ice in the Southern Hemisphere outside of Antarctica. But rapid change is ongoing. "They are, in fact, melting away at some of the highest rates on the planet," said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California-Irvine. [...] This astronaut photograph shows the merged outlet of two glaciers within the deep fjords of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. Read more... Outside of Antarctica, the largest contiguous icefield in the Southern Hemisphere is the Southern Patagonian Icefield in the Andes Mountains of Chile and Argentina. Read more...