Abu Dhabi:The country has experienced a significant reduction in its glacier area over the past two decades, with nearly a third of the ice disappearing and 95 glaciers vanishing entirely. This situation underscores the accelerating retreat of glaciers, which threatens to leave some mountain ranges without any glacial ice in the future.
According to Emirates News Agency, the findings come from a comprehensive study conducted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the universities of Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Graz. The research involved mapping Austria's glaciers with high-resolution imagery to document the extent of the losses. Lead author Lea Hartl from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, described the recent ice losses as extreme.
Andreas Kellerer-Pirklbauer of the Glacier Measurement Service of the Austrian Alpine Club provided further insights, noting unprecedented ice losses at high altitudes following last summer's heat. Specifically, at the Pasterze glacier in Carinthia, ice losses varied from approximately four meters at 3,000 meters elevation to ten meters at 2,500 meters.