Mountain glaciers, which are melting as a result of global warming, contain less ice than scientists thought, according to a study published today, which points to the dangers of access to water in some areas, such as the Andes.
“Finding less ice is important and will have consequences for millions of people around the world who depend on glaciers during the summer for their water supply,” said Matthew in a statement. Morlingham, Darmouth College in the United States.
Instead of being motionless, glaciers are masses of ice that flow under the influence of their weight. When we know this flow velocity, it allows us to determine the mass of the glacier. But so far, “we did not know this speed well,” the study’s lead author, Romain Milan, of the Institute of Environmental Geosciences in Grenoble, France, told AFP.
Researchers scrutinized hundreds of thousands of satellite images of glaciers, comparing progress over time with cracks and rocks to measure this flow velocity and arrive at an atlas estimating the thickness of 98% of the more than 200,000 mountain glaciers. planet (which excludes giant glaciers at the ends of the ice).
Globally, results published in the journal Nature Geoscience show that these glaciers are thinner than previously thought.
“Even if all the mountain glaciers were melting, their contribution to sea level rise would be 20% lower” than previously estimated, explains Romain Milan. That is, a possible contribution of about 26 cm.
Is this good news? Obviously not. The melting of mountain glaciers is marginal in terms of sea level rise, compared to the potential of the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica. “Even if the glaciers contain enough ice to raise the sea level by about 25 centimeters, there is enough ice in the ice caps to raise that level by more than 60 meters,” said Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute. climate change and the environment, which did not participate in the study.
– “They will disappear sooner” –
Instead, the impact is potentially catastrophic for glacier-dependent populations to drink water, agriculture or hydraulics.
Certainly, the study shows significant differences by region and some glaciers are much larger than expected, especially those in the Himalayas that contain 37% more ice.
On the other hand, the water reserves of the Andean glaciers are about 27% lower than previously estimated.
Consequence: for example, in the La Paz basin in Bolivia, where one third of water resources come from melting ice during the dry season, “it is inevitable that the smallest ice tank will have an impact sooner than was expected “, the researchers write.
As a result of global warming, glaciers are melting faster and faster. In a special report in 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that low-lying glaciers such as those in the Alps could lose 80% of their volume by 2100 and many could disappear altogether.
But this new study could change the data. “We urge the glacial community to use these new assessments to reassess glacier evolution,” said Romain Milan.
“Because there is less ice stored on glaciers than expected, they will disappear sooner than expected,” said Andrew Sheffield, director of the Center for Polar Observation and Modeling at the University of Leeds, who did not participate in the study.
While communities that depend on this water “will suffer the worst effects of climate change sooner,” he continues.
The study’s authors note, however, that information on glaciers is still incomplete and needs to be confirmed by field data collection, which is difficult for glaciers that span several countries, says Romain Milan.
Meanwhile, to help states better prepare for the effects of global warming on glaciers, researchers are working on simulating the evolution of water resources over time.
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