Spanish scientists warn of rapid glacier retreat in the Pyrenees. Especially in recent summers, the huge ice caps have lost several meters in thickness. According to the researchers, they could be completely gone within ten years.
Since 1928, 28 Pyrenean glaciers have melted along the natural border between Spain and France. The ice masses have been shrinking continuously since the 19th century, and researchers blame climate change for the sharp decline.
In 1984, a study concluded that there were a total of 45 glaciers in the Pyrenees. Currently, only 17 remain, says glacier expert Ignacio Lopzez Moreno of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIS), Spain’s High Council for Scientific Research.
“This year we took four off the list and signed five. Next year we will have to see if these can still be called glaciers. Also, the 1984 study said there were about 800 hectares of glacial ice in the Pyrenees. Today there are 160,” says Moreno.
Global warming is taking its toll on glaciers
The glaciers of the Pyrenees are currently the southernmost in Europe. They have been exposed to extreme climatic conditions for quite some time. The increase in temperature over the last 100 years – especially in the last two or three decades – has hit the Ferns hard. They do not create new ice and the remaining ice slowly melts away. “It is no exaggeration to say that we are facing an extreme and critical situation,” said Moreno.
“We are too late to save the glaciers of the Pyrenees. If we measure the thickness of the ice, they have a maximum between 20 and 40 meters. And at the moment we are seeing ice loss of one or two meters a year, last summer even up to five meters, which means that with two or three summers like in 2022 there will be no more glaciers,” warns CSIS expert Moreno.
“No more Pyrenean glaciers in ten years”
A few years ago, scientists still assumed that the glaciers in the Pyrenees would disappear within 30 to 50 years, Morena explains. “But at the moment we think that in ten years there will be no glaciers in the Pyrenees.”
Source: Krone
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