Peyto Glacier in Alberta and other glaciers in the U.S. and Canada lost significant amounts of ice between 2021 and 2024. (Image credit: Satellite image © 2022 Maxar Technologies via Getty Images)
Glaciers in Washington, Montana, British Columbia, Alberta and the Swiss Alps lost unprecedented amounts of ice between 2021 and 2024, according to a new study.
The researchers found that the total ice loss over the four years was double the rate recorded between 2010 and 2020, resulting in a 13% reduction in glacier area. Glaciers in the U.S. and Canada lost an average of 24.5 billion tons (22.2 billion metric tons) of ice annually, while glaciers in the Swiss Alps lost 1.7 billion tons (1.5 billion metric tons) of ice per year.
“Previous records have been broken,” study co-author Matthias Huss, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geotechnical Engineering at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told Live Science in an email. “We knew the glacier melt would be this extreme. However, when you go outside and see the measurements, you still experience surprise and difficulty in accepting the data.”
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Sourse: www.livescience.com
