A new study published in the journal ‘The Cryosphere’ has revealed that more than half of Switzerland's 1,400 glaciers have vanished since the early 1930s. Researchers state that the ice is melting faster than ever due to the rising impacts of climate change.
The research was led by the Federal Polytechnic University of ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute on Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research. The research announced the findings of the first reconstruction of Switzerland's ice loss in the 20th century, based on an analysis of changes in the topography of glaciers since 1931. The researchers estimated that the amount of ice on glaciers had been reduced in the subsequent 85 years by half by 2016. Since then an additional 12 percent of the glaciers have disappeared in just six years. The Swiss Alps' glacial ice is thought to have vanished by about 51.5% overall since 1931, the study estimates. That comes to an average of 0.73 cubic kilometres of ice lost per year.
The Swiss Alps' glaciers account for about half of the total glaciers in the European Alps. The teams of researchers assessed the measurements in the field and aerial and mountaineering photographs, taken from the peaks between the two world wars. By using multiple sources, researchers traced the ice deficiency. Over the years, only a few glaciers in Switzerland have been studied regularly. The team also conducted the research using decades-old techniques to help compare the size and position of terrain images and the use of cameras and equipment to measure angles to land areas. The teams compared the surface topography of the glaciers at different times to make calculations about the evolution of the ice volume.
The altitude, the amount of debris on the glaciers, and the flatness of the glacier's peak, its lowest part, which is most vulnerable to melting, affect the rate of retreat of the entire ice cap. The researchers also found that the two periods - the 1920s and 1980s - actually had a sporadic increase in glacier mass, but this was influenced by a broader trend of decline.
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