Glacier decline in the first decade of the 21st century has reached a historical record since monitoring began 120 years ago. The findings come from the World Glacier Monitoring Service’s latest study, which was conducted under the lead of the University of Zurich.
According to the international team of authors in the study “Historically unprecedented global glacier decline in the early 21st century”, which was published in the Journal of Glaciology, the current rate of glacier melt is without precedence – at least for the time period observed, and probably also in recorded history.
The study also shows that the long-term retreat of glacier tongues is a global phenomenon, according to the University of Zurich (UZH). It added that intermittent re‐advance periods of glaciers are at regional and decadal scales.
In addition, the study indicates that the intense ice loss seen over the past two decades has resulted in a strong imbalance of glaciers in many regions of the world, reported UZH.
“These glaciers will suffer further ice loss, even if climate remains stable,” according to Michael Zemp, Director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service and lead author of the study, as quoted in the press release. The monitoring service, which is hosted at the University of Zurich, has been collecting data on global glacier changes for 120 years.
The latest analysis was published by the international service together with national correspondents in more than 30 countries.
Photo credit: Drew Brayshaw/ CC BY-NC 2.0
