A group of experts from the Swiss Academy of Sciences announced that there is a sharp acceleration in the melting of mountain glaciers. In 2022, their volumes decreased by 6% and in 2023 by 4%. In this respect says In a report from the GLAMOS Glacier Monitoring Center in Switzerland.
Scientists say that the melting of the snow cover continues at a “catastrophic” pace.
“In just two years, the same amount of ice was lost as was lost between 1960 and 1990. “Two extreme years in a row led to the collapse of large glacier tongues and the complete disappearance of smaller ice accumulations,” the study says.
The average ice thickness loss in the Swiss Alps was between two and three meters, depending on the region.
According to GLAMOS president Matthias Huss, Switzerland has already lost up to 1 thousand small glaciers and is now starting to lose larger and more important glaciers.
Researchers attributed the large-scale ice loss to mild winters and summer heat. More than half of the automatic monitoring stations above 2,000 meters, which have been in operation for at least a quarter of a century, recorded record low snow levels for this time of year. In the spring of 2023, snow began to melt two to four weeks earlier than normal due to an extremely warm June.
Scientists noted that temperatures below 0°C were recorded at a record altitude of approximately 5,300 meters in August 2023. This means that all mountain peaks in Switzerland maintain temperatures above zero.
Previous researchers I learnedWith a 1.5°C increase in temperature, half of the Earth’s glaciers will melt.