MORTTERATTI GLAICE, Switzerland (Archyde.com) – Glacier researcher Andreas Linsbauer, 45, glides across ice-covered crevasses. It’s hard to believe he’s carrying a ten-kilogram steel instrument to document the disappearing glaciers of the Swiss Alps.
Linsbauer typically follows this route over the massive Morteratsch Glacier at the end of September, when the summer’s melting season ends. However, this year’s loss of glaciers is so great that emergency conservation work has to be carried out two months earlier than usual to visit a 15 square kilometer amphitheater-like ice mass.
As the ice melts, the marker poles on the surface that track changes in ice mass change completely, requiring new holes to be drilled.
Alpine glacier loss is nearing the highest level in at least 60 years on record, according to data published exclusively by Archyde.com. Researchers measure how much the glacier has shrunk in a year by looking at the difference between winter snowfall and summer ice melt.
Since last winter, when there was relatively little snowfall, the Alps were hit by two full-scale heat waves in early summer. A July heatwave saw temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius in the mountain village of Zermatt, Switzerland.
During this heatwave, the highest altitude at which frozen water was observed was 5,184 meters above sea level, higher than the altitude of Mont Blanc. In an average summer, it would freeze at 3,000-3,500 meters above sea level.
“This year is definitely an extreme season,” Lincebauer said as he checked the height of the marker poles sticking out of the ice and was overwhelmed by the roar of the melting water. rice field.
The world’s mountain glaciers are remnants of the last Ice Age, but they’re disappearing as a result of climate change. However, glaciers in the European Alps are particularly fragile due to their relatively small snow-covered areas and small glacier size. Meanwhile, temperatures in the Alps are rising at a rate of about 0.3°C per decade. This is about twice the global average.
Alpine glaciers are expected to lose more than 80% of their current ice mass by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. A 2019 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said many glaciers in the Alps will disappear as global warming from past greenhouse gas emissions continues despite efforts to reduce emissions. It says.
The Morteratsch Glacier is already very different from what it looks like on tourist maps of the region. The end of the valley, which once stretched to the bottom of the valley, has receded by nearly 3 kilometers. The thickness of the ice mass has decreased by up to 200 meters. Until 2017, the parallel Perth Glacier drained into the Morteratsch Glacier, but now it’s disappearing and the bare sandstone surface separating the two glaciers is expanding.
This year’s dire conditions have raised concerns that Alpine glaciers may disappear sooner than expected. Matthias Huss, head of the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS), said that could be possible in more years like 2022.
“We are now seeing what the forecast model said was 20 to 30 years ahead,” Hus said. “We didn’t expect such an extreme year so early in the century.”
Glacier researchers in Austria, France and Italy have all admitted that their glaciers are also headed for record loss. “You don’t see snow on glaciers up to the summit (in Austria),” says Andrea Fischer, a glacier researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Falling snow not only replaces ice lost over the summer, but also protects glaciers from further melting. Ice is more efficient at reflecting sunlight back into the atmosphere and escaping heat when it’s snow-covered and white than when it’s darkened by dust and pollution.
But the Grande Tre glacier in northwestern Italy had just 1.3 meters of snow last winter. This is 2 meters less than the 20-year average by 2020.
This year’s record-breaking Alpine glacier loss before the peak of melting in August came as no small surprise to researchers. Many glaciers had already lost their low-lying extremities. That means the glaciers should have been more protected from melting because they were retreating to cooler, higher altitudes, researchers thought.
“It’s easy to imagine what it will be like at the end of the summer,” said Marco Giardino, vice-president of the Italian Glacier Research Commission. rice field.
The data show that the Morteratsch Glacier is now disappearing at a rate of about five centimeters a day, already worse than at the end of a typical summer.
The nearby Silvretta glacier has retreated about one meter since the same period in 1947, the worst since 1915 on record.
Disappearing glaciers are already threatening human lives and livelihoods. Eleven people died in early July when a glacier collapsed on Mount Marmolada in northern Italy. A few days later, a glacier in the Tien Shan mountain range in eastern Kyrgyzstan collapsed, triggering a massive avalanche that threw ice and rocks at passing tourists.
The mountain road from the village of Saas-Fee in Switzerland to the mountain hut used to pass through snow fields that remained on the Chesgen Glacier even in summer.
“The route is too dangerous right now,” said Dario Andenmatten, the hut’s manager, looking at the desolate landscape dotted with glacial lakes. Rocks that were previously held tightly together by ice are at risk of collapsing.
Residents of Switzerland worry that the loss of glaciers will also hit the economy. Some Alpine ski resorts have covered glaciers with white covers to reflect sunlight and reduce melting.
Switzerland’s glaciers feature in many of the country’s fairy tales. The Aletsch Glacier is also listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“Disappearing glaciers is like losing our national heritage, our identity,” said hiker Bernadine Shabaya. “Sad”
(Emma Farge, Gloria Dickie, Translated by Ea Klelen)