TRIFT GLACIER, ALPS, FRANCE

Waterfall meets icefall on the Trift Glacier as the ice retreats. Since 1860, the Trift has emptied a huge basin full of ice, pulling back 9100 feet (2800 m.). The retreat in 2005 alone was nearly 700 feet (215 m.) The vast majority of glaciers in the Alps are shrinking steadily and many will likely disappear in coming decades. According to an American Geophysical Union publication (Geophysical Research Letters, July 15, 2006), “in the 1970's, about 5,150 Alpine glaciers covered a total area of 1,123 square miles (2,909 square kilometers). This represented a loss of about 35 percent of glacial area from 1850 to that time. Accelerated loss of ice cover since then has resulted in a total loss of 50 percent of the 1850 area, culminating in a volume loss of 5 to 10 percent of the remaining ice during the extraordinary warm year of 2003.

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