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Mountain ice melts and secrets die - 17th August 2022

Europe's getting hotter, especially in the mountains. 120 years ago, it was 2 degrees Celsius colder.

Scientists are studying the Jamtalferner glacier, in Austria. The ice is melting into water.

Andrea Fischer studies glaciers. She says there isn’t enough snow this year.

Andrea Fischer: "We are now at the beginning of the melting season and there is no more snow. No new substance can be formed. There is only melted snow and therefore it is not sustainable, because to be sustainable it has to be in balance with the climate. And what melts must be refrozen as ice." 

Glaciers are like a museum. Inside the ice are old plants. These plants give information. It shows the Earth’s climate in the past. Scientists can learn when the ice began. They see when it melted too. Scientists use the information to understand our future climate.

Now, Ms Fischer can see grey in the mountain ice. The glacier’s melting. 

Andrea Fischer: "And these grey surfaces, these rocky surfaces that appear here in the middle of the glacier, were already there two weeks ago this year. They're already more than a metre from the surface, and by the end of the summer, this summer, a lot of the glacier will be gone. All these surfaces, where we already see rocks, will no longer exist at that time."

Scientists are worried. They don’t want to lose the important information. So, they’re using machines to get it. These machines go down 14 metres into the ice. It’s dangerous work. In Italy, a glacier melted and there were big problems. 11 people died in the mountains.

But there isn’t much time.