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

European mountain peaks have seen temperatures rise by almost 2 degrees Celsius in the past 12 decades, practically twice the global norm. Not far from where Austria borders with Switzerland, researchers are scrutinising how this phenomenon is causing the Jamtalferner glacier to thaw at an unprecedented rate.

Glaciologist Andrea Fischer has been closely surveying Jamtal and four other Alpine glaciers for 20 years.

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 ancient ice presents an invaluable archive, allowing scientists to form a vivid picture of the Earth’s climate in past millennia. In the process of expansion, these ice formations encapsulated plant fragments such as twigs and leaves, much like a time capsule, which can now be accurately carbon-dated. Based on the material’s age and the depth it’s retrieved from, specialists are then equipped to infer when the frozen mass swelled and diminished over time. 

This intelligence permits scientists to project probable future climate outcomes for the planet.

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."

The gravity of the situation has spurred glaciologists to drill 14 metres down into the compacted ice, to claim the vanishing archives before it’s too late. As it dissolves, the hazards multiply, and in Italy recently, 11 trekkers tragically perished after soaring temperatures caused a glacial melt, culminating in a deadly avalanche.

Meanwhile, nature has already cloaked the scars left by the retreating glaciers with a variety of over 20 varied mosses and other plants.