Figure 13.-Historic variations of the terminus position of the Franz Josef Glacier and associated events.
1907-A viewing gallery giving access across a sheer rock face above the northeast margin on the snout was scraped off the rock face by this small advance shortly after being built.
1930-1949-A proglacial lake formed but soon filled with outwash gravels. The lake was popular for boating until a large ice block, held submerged by debris, released its load and erupted through the lake surface.
1965-During a heavy rainstorm in December, the main subglacial channel was apparently blocked beneath the glacier snout, and the accumulated water burst upward through the glacier to continue downvalley as a spectacular flood wave of water and ice. There was some damage but no casualties.
1984- A shelter hut, built in 1981 for visitors helicoptered to the inaccessible southwest edge of the glacier snout, was knocked off of its foundation by a large ice block that fell from the glacier front, which was advancing at the rate of a meter per day. The hut was removed from the site, which now remains well under the glacier.