Swiss glacier shrinks in half in 85 years

In the Swiss Alps, melting water flows down the Semperhorn glacier next to the Oldenhorn above Les Diablerets.
The study, published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere, covered changes in about 86 percent of Switzerland’s glacial area. Comparing the differences between the images from different years, the researchers found that the volume of the Swiss glaciers varied greatly. For example, the Fischer Glacier has shrunk from a huge “white ocean” to only scattered remains over the decades. In addition, the study found that the decline in the volume of Swiss glaciers is also accelerating, in the six years after 2016 alone, the volume of Swiss glaciers has shrunk by 12%. The retreat of the glacier was not continuous, the researchers said in a statement, and there was a short-term massive increase in the size of the Swiss glaciers in the 1920s and 1980s. Professor Daniel Farino, who participated in the study, said that although the glacier may grow in the short term in the future, the general trend of its overall size reduction cannot be ignored.