The glaciers in the European Alps have decreased massively in recent years. In the future, the ice will melt, probably more strongly – the Bavarian glaciers are facing a dramatic development.

The glacier in the Alpine have been blurred. A study illustrates the pace - there won't be no more ice in Bavaria ? The melt provides a substantial Changes in terms of landscape and water runoff.

Erlangen – climate change is progressing and the ice masses in the European Alps quickly: A research team at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has been investigated for the first time, the surfaces and height changes of Alpine glaciers in France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy over a period of 14 years. The result: About 17 percent of the entire Ice have been lost from 2000 to 2014, more than 22 cubic kilometers.

study shows: the future of the glaciers in Bavaria will not looks good

the five Bavarian glaciers – the Northern and the Southern schneeferner at the Zugspitze mountain, the höllental furthermore, in the Wetterstein mountains, the Watzmann glacier and the Blaueis in the Berchtesgaden Alps – there were no exact measurements possible. "The German glaciers, which have now become so small that they fall below the minimum glacier size that can be realistically from the All measured," says Christian Sommer from the Institute of geography at FAU. Already around the year 2000, the Bavarian glaciers were smaller than a square kilometer. "In the meantime, the area has shrunk by about half," says summer.

+ of The Great Aletsch glacier is the largest glacier in the Swiss Alps. He is located in the Unesco world heritage area Jungfrau – Aletsch- but there, too, is melted in the last few years, a lot of ice.©dpa/Christian summer

For the future of the Bavarian glacier it's not looking so good: "We have to assume that tiny glaciers are among the first to disappear," says summer. In addition, the low position: "The low edge of the mountains of the Alps under 3000 meters are affected First by the Glaciers are receding," he explains. How long it will be in the Alps in Bavaria is a glacier, it was difficult to reliably predict. "But there is a high probability that by 2100 the low Alpine areas are ice-free," says summer. "It will be in the Bavarian Alps, massive Changes in the landscape and in water runoff."

especially in summer* the melt water had of the glaciers, a not insignificant share of the water outflow of major European river systems . During the investigation, data obtained can be a basis for further modelling of changes to predict. For the measurements the researchers took advantage of data from radar satellites to create three-dimensional terrain models of the earth's surface, and optical satellite images. "So we had information on the height and on the surface of the glacier," says summer.

How hard the climate change Bayern hits, described at the beginning of the year, researchers with a dismal prognosis*.

glacier melt in the Alps: ice cream in the whole of Europe rapide

The results were clear: "The measurements have shown that the melting of the ice extends to the whole of the Alps," explains summer. The strongest Eisverluste in the Swiss Alps – which are also the largest glacier areas. In the case of the large valley, the Bernese Alps glaciers, the mean thickness of the ice increased to 72 inches, which corresponds to an Ice volume of about five cubic kilometres. At the Great Aletsch glacier in the Swiss Valais, the largest glacier in the Alps, melting the surface in the lower layers to more than five meters per year. The researchers found that, in the meantime, in the highest glacier areas, the ice melts*. With the exception of the highest elevations of the Central Alps were.

THIS will hit us unfortunately much worse than SARS-CoV 2......

climate change: Dramatic glacier melt in the Alps https://t.co/pfvXOHpAZ8 via @derspiegel

— Dr. Michael Gnant (@MichaelGnant) June 25, 2020

Christian Sommer from the European Alps, the Andes, in comparison to other major mountain ranges such as, for example, the South American will be relatively strongly affected by the glacial melt . "Because the Alps are lower, the temperature rise, the glaciers there more," he explains.

The investigations will be continued. "We are planning to reconstruct on the basis of the data, the Situation in the last century," announces the summer. The melting of the glacier is advancing throughout the earth and has serious consequences for nature and man: Into the sea of flowing molten masses of ice make for a sea-level rise - and this threatens, in turn, millions of residents of coastal regions.

experts concluded in this regard, recently, an alarming assessment.

*Merkur.de is an offer of Ippen Digital network

section list image:©dpa/Christian summer

Date Of Update: 26 June 2020, 07:35