Increasing Glacier Loss Across the Andes Since the Little Ice Age

Geophysical Research Letters, 30 June 2024

Tropical glaciers in the Andes are now losing ice up to 10 times faster than their long-term average, according to a new study. Authors mapped changes in more than 5500 glaciers across the Andes since the Little Ice Age (1,400 to 1,850 CE) in order to place today’s losses into a longer term context. Overall, glaciers in the Andes have shrunk by 25%, with much higher losses in Tropical regions. Glaciers in the Tropical Andes (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) have decreased the most, and average half their size at the start of anthropogenic warming; with the glaciers of Venezuela now entirely lost.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109154