Christchurch's massive earthquake caused a 30 million-tonne chunk of ice to break off from the Tasman Glacier, about 200km away on the West Coast.
A 1.2km long, 300m high, 75m wide piece of ice on the face of Tasman Glacier, in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, plummeted into Tasman Lake as the
earthquake struck this afternoon.
Aoraki Mt Cook Alpine Village Ltd tourism general manager Denis Callesen said it had for some time been expected that the ice would break off -- given recent heavy rainfall in the area and La Nina weather conditions -- but it had not been anticipated an earthquake would trigger the dramatic event.
A group of tourists on a boat in the lake at the time were walloped by giant waves created by the calving.
Mr Callesen said they were not in danger and had the trip of a lifetime.
The ice broke up in the water, forming several icebergs, one 250m long.
Mr Callesen said this was the third largest calving to have occurred in the lake in the last 40 years. All those happened in the last two years.
