Glaciers in the European Alps are becoming increasingly unstable and dangerous as rising temperatures linked to climate change awaken what were long thought to be dormant, almost petrified ice sheets.
As Italy basked in an early summer heatwave, attention was focused on the drought’s impact on crops in the fertile Po Valley.
But further north in the Dolomites, a mountain range in northeastern Italy, tragedy struck on Sunday when a glacier collapsed on Mount Marmolada, killing at least seven people. The mountain, reaching a height of over 3,300 meters, is the highest in the mountain range.
“This summer of 2022 risks being the perfect storm for glaciers,” said Giovanni Baccolo, an environmental scientist and glaciologist at the University of Milan-Bicocca in Milan, Italy.
Bakolo noted a lack of winter snow and a blisteringly hot start to summer as contributing factors.
“No one could have expected a glacier like Marmolada to react like this,” he told Reuters. “It’s a kind of climate fossil. Glaciers like Marmolada are considered quiescent, they are expected to simply retreat.”
Amazing helicopter footage of the Base Squad mountain rescuer in Marmolada.
Water lubrication at the base (or between layers) and increased pressure in water-filled cracks are likely the main causes of this catastrophic event photo. twitter.com/2OXRExkdjy
—@aametsoc
Temperatures in the normally freezing Marmolada reached 10C on Saturday, according to Veneto regional governor Luca Zaia.
The huge mass of ice collapsed near Punta Roca, on the route commonly used by hikers and climbers to reach the summit, the Alpine Rescue Service said.
“High altitude glaciers like Marmolada are often steep and rely on cold temperatures below 0C to keep them stable,” said Paul Kristoffersen, professor of glaciology at the University of Cambridge.
“But climate change means more and more meltwater releasing heat that warms the ice if the water freezes again, or even worse: lifting the glacier off the rock below and causing a sudden unstable collapse,” he added.
I think that while we know how the glacier retreats, we don’t know much about how it disappears. What happened on Marmolada today concerns a glacier considered relatively risk-free.
Nonlinear damage to small glaciers may become more common in the near future. pic.twitter.com/fKBsu0wWrY
—@g_baccolo
Bakolo said those intrepid tourists who head to the mountains to escape the summer heat should be careful where they go.
“The invitation I want to give to those going to the high mountains this summer is to be a lot more careful,” he said. “The problem is that it may no longer be enough to read the glacial cues that have been read so far.”
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