WORLD / EUROPE
Rocky path revealed between Swiss glaciers in extreme melt season
Published: Sep 12, 2022 07:34 PM
Swiss Glacier Switzerland has about 1,800 glaciers and almost of them are losing ground.Greenpeace said if global warming continues unabated, most glaciers will disappear from the Earth by 2080.(Source: huanqiu.com/china.org.cn)

Swiss Glacier Switzerland has about 1,800 glaciers and almost of them are losing ground.Greenpeace said if global warming continues unabated, most glaciers will disappear from the Earth by 2080.(Source: huanqiu.com/china.org.cn)


A rocky Alpine path between two glaciers in Switzerland is emerging for what the local ski resort says is the first time in at least 2,000 years after the hottest European summer on record.

The ski resort of Glacier 3000 in western Switzerland said 2022's ice melt was around three times the 10-year average, meaning bare rock can now be seen between the Scex Rouge and the Zanfleuron glaciers at an altitude of 2,800 meters and the pass will be completely exposed by the end of September.

"About 10 years ago I measured 15 meters of ice here so all that ice has melted in the meantime," said Mauro Fischer, a glaciologist at the University of Bern's Institute of Geography.

"What we saw this year and this summer is just extraordinary and it's really beyond everything we have ever measured so far," he added, referring to the speed at which the ice has melted.

Since winter 2021, which brought relatively little snowfall, the Alps have sweltered through two big early summer heat waves. The Alps' glaciers are now on track for their biggest mass losses in at least 60 years, records show.

Not only the glaciers, experts have warned that some fish populations are at risk as a result of high water temperatures in rivers and streams.

The country has been experiencing continuing hot and dry summer weather, which has caused recorded low water levels in several lakes and rivers in eastern, central and southern parts of the country. 

The water tables across Switzerland, known as the Europe's water reservoir, have fallen far below average.

Agencies