Austrian ice caves threatened by climate change

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According to geologists at the University of Innsbruck, massive ice loss threatens eight ice caves in four states. There are also similar developments and predictions for glaciers. Many caves are threatened with complete ice loss in the coming years and decades.

Researchers from the universities of Innsbruck and Belfast have examined eight shaft-shaped ice caves in Tyrol, Styria, Upper Austria and Carinthia in recent years. Although there are already numerous studies on individual caves, a different path was chosen, as Tanguy Racine of the working group explains: “However, we wanted to make a comparative analysis for the first time and focused on the development of different caves, which are also in comparable caves. settings: similar height and steep to vertically sloped geometry.”

Ice caves and glaciers with a similar development
To determine the age of the ice sheets, the smallest inclusions of wood in the frozen water were examined. This can be accurately determined. In addition, an exact picture of the increase and decrease of the ice can be traced over a period of up to 2000 meters. The researchers were able to prove that historically documented glacier developments, such as in the “Little Ice Age”, are also reflected in the growth of the ice mass in ice caves and coincide in time. “We can document similar ups and downs in ice development in ice caves and glaciers over the past two millennia. It is important for both of them how much snow falls in winter and how warm the summers are,” says Racine.

Huge declines in recent decades
The balance of the ice caves is clearly negative for the recent past: “It is not only glaciers that show an above-average negative mass balance, especially in recent decades. The ice in the ice caves is also severely affected by the consequences of temperature rise and decreasing rainfall.”

Monitoring in the Guffert Eisschacht in Steinberg am Rofan revealed a reduction of the snow surface by almost three meters between 2019 and 2021. The ice cave Eisgruben near Sarstein in Upper Austria has lost ten meters of ice thickness in 40 years. Ice loss in the crater shaft in the Sengsen Mountains in Upper Austria is 20 meters in 20 years.

The explanation for this development, analogous to that of glaciers, is human-induced climate change. “Especially for the medium and smaller ice caves, we have to assume that they will lose a huge amount of ice mass or even become completely ice-free in the coming years or decades,” explains Racine.

Source: Krone

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