SCHWARZMILZFERNER GLACIER LOSES ITS GLACIER STATUS

VIENNA, NOVEMBER 7 /SRNA/ - The Schwarzmilzferner glacier on the Austrian side of the Allgäu High Alps has lost its glacier status following this year's hot summer.

Researchers say the warm months cost the glacier more than four metres in thickness and around half of its volume.

"It is very likely to disappear completely by next summer," said Christoph Mayer, a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

For 26 years, he and his colleagues have carefully monitored what was once the last glacier in the Allgäu High Alps on the Austrian side, documenting significant losses of ice mass since 2016.

"This trend has intensified further since 2022. Since then, it has become quite clear that the glacier's days are numbered," Mayer said.

In addition to thickness and volume, a key factor in defining a glacier is whether it flows – which is no longer the case with the Schwarzmilzferner either, DPA reported.

The ice field, located near the border between Austria and Germany at an altitude of around 2,450 metres, is by no means an isolated case.

"Several smaller glaciers in the Alps disappear every year," Mayer said, describing the trend as virtually unstoppable.

He warned that even heavy snowfall in winter cannot prevent the rapid shrinking of ice masses.

"Summers have now become too hot for them. As things stand, I expect the entire Eastern Alps to be ice-free between 2060 and 2070," Mayer said.