The largest glacier in Spain, located in the Maladeta massif, is melting visibly. Due to heat waves, the Aneto glacier, the most massive in the Pyrenees, is melting three times faster than normal, reports the Huffington Post THURSDAY. The summer season was particularly hot for our Iberian neighbours, who are already experiencing their third intense episode of heat wave since the beginning of summer.
As the records follow one another, with a peak of nearly 47 ° C in Valencia in the south-east of Spain on Thursday, the Aneto glacier is in the “terminal phase”. In about forty years, the total surface area of the glacier has shrunk by almost 65%. It also loses volume, the thickness of its ice having decreased by about 30 meters. Researchers warn of the situation, especially since beyond the heat which seems to condemn this glacier to death, it suffers from the presence of cryoconites.
Glaciers will disappear from the Pyrenees by 2050
Biologists who went near the glacier to study it have indeed discovered black mucus, reports the Spanish daily El País. It is a mixture of bacteria, archaea and dust that accumulates heat and accelerates the melting of ice. The Aneto glacier is unfortunately not the only one counting its days due to climate change. In 2050, there will be no more glaciers in the Pyrenees.
“The glaciers in the Pyrenees will completely disappear. We do not have the precise date but it is a certainty because the global increase in temperatures is very rapid, ”explained glaciologist Pierre René to AFP last Saturday. Thus, the Oulettes de Gaube glacier, located in the Vignemale massif, survives with difficulty. Despite the fact that it is in the shade, protected from the sun, it does not stop melting. It has lost more than half its size since 1850. According to Pierre René, there were around a hundred glaciers in the Pyrenees around the middle of the 19th century. Today, about twenty have disappeared, taking with them a part of the mountain biodiversity.