RHONE GLACIER, ALPS, SWITZERLAND
September 27, 2006
The Rhone Glacier has retreated more than a mile (5800 ft. or 1200 m.) since precise measurements began in 1880. The retreat in 2006 was nearly 25 feet (7.6 m.). But measuring terminus retreat on long glaciers like this one misses the more important fact that the glacier is losing mass and thinning along its entire length at the same time. A mountain lake will soon take the place of this glacier if current trends continue. 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.
|
