The clock's ticking on glacier - 17th August 2022

Temperatures in Europe’s highest peaks have risen by roughly two degrees Celsius in the last 120 years, almost double the world average. Near the Austrian-Swiss border, scientists are examining how this is affecting the rate at which the Jamtalferner glacier is melting.

Andrea Fischer, a specialist in the field of glaciers, has spent two decades researching Jamtalferner and four other glaciers.

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." 

The glaciers provide a key, historical record which enables scientists to reconstruct the Earth’s ancient climate. As the glaciers expanded, the ice captured plant pieces such as leaves and tiny sticks, and their age can be measured by carbon dating. This data, together with the depth the piece was found at, inform scientists of periods when the glaciers grew and shrank.

This knowledge, which is disappearing fast, can be used to build models of what our future climate may look like.

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."

Due to the urgency of the situation, specialists are drilling 14 metre holes deep into the ice, to access its secrets. As the ice melts, the task becomes riskier. Earlier in the year, 11 individuals were killed while hiking, when a melting glacier caused an avalanche on the mountain side.

In the meantime, nature’s already begun to cover the newly bare ground with a range of at least 20 plant species.