Largest Glaciers in Southern Europe Rapidly Disappearing

Geophysical Research Letters, August 29

Glaciers in the Pyrenees Mountains had lost 88% of their 1850 volume by 2016. Since 2011, they have lost 23% of their ice and have become 0.7 meters thinner each year. These glaciers are the largest in southern Europe. Air temperatures across the Pyrenean mountain range have increased by more than 1.5°C since the end of the last Ice Age (11,700 years ago), and snow coverage has sharply declined over the past four decades. In 1850, there were 52 glaciers in this mountain range; in 1984, there were 39; and by 2016, only 19 remained. Glacier shrinkage in the Pyrenees has accelerated even further since 2011. These glaciers could melt into flat patches of ice or disappear entirely within the next few decades unless a low-emission pathway is followed, slowing their retreat and inevitable disappearance given warming to date.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL094339