<
https://theconversation.com/glaciers-in-the-alps-are-melting-faster-than-ever-and-2022-was-their-worst-summer-yet-189197>
"Finally, after what was arguably the worst summer on record for glaciers, snow
has begun to fall in the European Alps. It is much needed. Over the 19 years
that I have visited and studied the glaciers in Switzerland, I have not seen a
summer like 2022. The scale of change is staggering.
Glaciologists like me used to use the word “extreme” to describe annual ice
loss of around 2% of a glacier’s overall volume. This year Switzerland’s
glaciers have lost an average of 6.2% of their ice – extreme indeed.
The new flurries of snow will form a protective blanket to shield and reflect
90% of the sun’s radiation back into the atmosphere and limits the warming and
melting of the ice beneath. When snow falls over the winter, and then
subsequently doesn’t melt over the summer, it adds to the mass of a glacier.
Over a few similar years, gravity would take over and glaciers would start to
advance downhill.
However over the past century, that has not been the case. The protective
layers of snow have not been thick enough to offset the warming summer
temperatures and on average glaciers around the world have been wasting away
since the end of the little ice age in the mid-late 1800s."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
