Some glaciers in South America are smaller than ever before

Alps, Himalayas, Antarctica – glaciers are melting all over the world. Now a new study shows that some glaciers in the South American Andes are smaller than ever in the last 11,700 years.

An international team of researchers has examined rock samples in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia and published the results in the journal Science. According to the results, the current ice retreat goes beyond the natural fluctuations in the size of the glacier beyond.

At the beginning of the current Holocene geological era around 11,700 years ago, the earth warmed up and many glaciers in the northern hemisphere retreated significantly. Most of them are still larger today than their minimum extent in the Holocene, write the study authors. But this does not necessarily apply to all Andean glaciers. The researchers suspect: “Many smaller tropical glaciers may react more quickly to the modern Climate change.”

The scientists carried out an isotope analysis of rocks beneath glacier tongues that had been under glacier ice until a few years or decades ago. The analysis shows where the rock must have been under ice until recently. Natural erosion was also taken into account.

Result: “Our data suggest that many glaciers in the tropics are probably smaller now than they have been for the past 11,700 years, which the tropics the first major region in which this milestone has been documented,” the researchers said.

They also see their work as a warning about what could happen to glaciers in other regions of the world in the future – for example in the Northern Hemisphere. (dpa/mks)