The most southern ice glaciers are likely to almost disappear in the next two decades due to climate change, since the reduction in the ice mass on the pyrenees continues with a constant rapid speed observed at least since the 1980s. This is predicted by Spanish scientists who have published an article in the magazine Geophysical Research Letters.
Since 2011, in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, three glaciers disappeared or turned into ice strips. In 17 of two dozen remaining ice shields, ice thickness on average decreased by 6.3 meters. The mass decreased by more than one fifth (by 23 percent) in almost one decade.
The cause of scientists call global climate change and, in particular, the overall increase in temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the Pyrenean region, starting from the XIX century. According to geologists, such dramatic changes were to become a tragedy for the landscape of the Pyrenees and its biodiversity, but the exact consequences remain unknown.
Scientists have discovered a decrease in ice thickness up to 20 meters in some places of the fastest melting glaciers. The reduction of the four largest occurs with a stable speed than the reduction of smaller iceboards. The study authors conclude that they can confidently assert that the Pyrenees glaciers are in extreme danger and may disappear or turn into a residual ice spot in about two decades.