Switzerland's glaciers experience significant ice reduction in two years
Switzerland is facing a rapid loss of its glaciers, with 10% of their ice volume disappearing in just two years. The unprecedented phenomenon is attributed to low snowfall and increasing temperatures. In 2023 alone, the glaciers experienced a 4% loss in volume, following a record-setting 6% loss in 2022. This level of melting equals the ice lost over the three decades from 1960 to 1990. Experts say these extreme losses would not have been possible without climate change and warn of the collapse and disappearance of glaciers in Switzerland.
Switzerland's glaciers are undergoing an alarming rate of meltdown, with an astonishing 10% of their ice volume disappearing within a mere two-year span. This rapid melting is attributed to a combination of low snowfall and soaring temperatures, and it represents an unprecedented phenomenon, as per recent data released on Thursday, reports CNN.
In 2023 alone, the glaciers in the country witnessed a decline of 4% of their overall volume, according to findings from the
Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. This level of melting is only surpassed by the record set in 2022 when 6% of the glaciers had melted away, as per a CNN report.
To put this into perspective, the ice loss witnessed in Swiss glaciers over these past two years equals the amount of ice lost over the entire three decades spanning from 1960 to 1990.
Matthias Huss, the head of the
Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (
GLAMOS ), remarked, "The losses we've seen in 2022 and 2023 are simply mind-blowing and beyond everything we have experienced so far." He further emphasized that these extremes "would have been impossible without climate change," noting that glaciers have been steadily and rapidly losing mass for many decades, but this acceleration is unprecedented.
These two exceptional years have resulted in the collapse of glacier tongues and the complete disappearance of numerous small glaciers in
Switzerland .