Switzerland’s Birch Glacier hit the headlines this week, after a huge chunk broke off – partially destroying the village of Blatten.
Now, scientists have created an interactive map that reveals the glaciers around the world that could be next in the firing line.
The ‘Global Glacier Casualty List’ documents glaciers that are soon to disappear, or have already melted away.
Users can drag the globe to see glaciers from all around the world, including some in Africa, Indonesia and Venezuela – challenging the misconception that these cherished natural landforms are only found at the north and south poles.
The tool was created by anthropologists and glaciologists led by Rice University Professors Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer, who warn that over three-quarters of global glacier mass is expected to disappear under present climate policies.
Glaciers are considered one of our planet’s most precious natural features, as inspiring to behold as cliffs, canyons, valleys or reefs.
These slow moving rivers of ice – some hundreds of thousands of years old – reflect the sun’s rays back into space and store valuable freshwater.
But scientists warn that many glaciers around the world have already disappeared – primarily due to rising global temperatures and climate change.
It follows a chunk of Switzerland’s Birch Glacier breaking off and crashing down a valley on Wednesday, partially destroying the village of Blatten with debris
‘Glaciers have literally shaped the ground we walk on, and they provide crucial water resources to about 2 billion people,’ said Professor Howe.
‘For people who have lived near glaciers, their cultural meanings are often profound, representing the fundamental relationship between social and natural worlds.’
The Global Glacier Casualty List features nearly 30 global glaciers that are given the classification ‘Disappeared’, ‘Almost Disappeared’ or ‘Critically Endangered’.
Users can click on one of the existing or pre-existing glaciers to learn more about how they’ve been affected by global warming.
One of those listed as ‘Disappeared’ is the Baumann Glacier in New Zealand, which vanished in 2020 after decades of shrinkage.
The Baumann Glacier measured 0.34 sq mile (0.9 sq km) in 1978, 0.16 sq mile (0.44 sq km) in 2000 and just 0.02 sq mile (0.07 sq km) in 2016 before fading away forever.
Meanwhile, Anderson Glacier once flowed through the Olympic National Park of Washington State before disappearing in 2016.
When experts studied Anderson Glacier in 1992, they measured its area as 0.14 sq mile (0.38 sq km), which was just a third of the size it had been a century prior.
Like with Google Earth, users can drag the globe to see glaciers from around the world, including some in Africa – challenging the misconception that the natural features are only found at the poles
Yala Glacier of Nepal (pictured) is ‘Critically Endangered’ and expected to vanish in the 2040s, according to the interactive global mapping tool
Anderson Glacier is seen here in late summer in this undated photo. Anderson Glacier once flowed through the Olympic National Park of Washington State before disappearing in 2016
But by 2003 the glacier had diminished to 0.1 sq mile (0.28 sq km) and became a series of small disconnected relic glacier ice patches before vanishing entirely.
An even more recent one to have disappeared is the Sarenne Glacier, which was in the Grandes Rousses mountain area of southeast France.
As recently as the 1980s, Sarenne’s ice was still as thick as 260 feet (80 metres) in some places, but its melting accelerated considerably in recent decades leading to its loss in 2023.
Among those still in existence – at least for now – are the Yala Glacier of Nepal, which is ‘Critically Endangered’ and expected to vanish in the 2040s.
The area of the Yala Glacier decreased from 0.9 sq mile (2.42 sq km) in 1981 to 0.5 sq mile (1.54 sq km) in 2015 – a decrease of 36 per cent.
‘Because Yala Glacier is relatively accessible it’s been an ideal research and training site for future glaciologists, but this is no longer the case as it has undergone significant changes in both area and volume,’ said Sharad Joshi, a glacier researcher at International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal.
‘With each visit, I’m left feeling profoundly sad when I see such massive loss on this glacier,’ he said.
There’s also the ‘Almost Disappeared’ Santa Isabel Glacier in Colombia which is projected to be gone even sooner – by 2030.
Santa Isabel Glacier in Colombia (pictured) is described as a once ‘endearing white giant’ almost disappeared and projected to be gone by 2030
A recent study found that glaciers are now retreating so fast that they release an average of 273 billion tonnes of water every year (6,542 billion tons between 2000 and 2023). Pictured, Argentiere Glacier in France, which has also receded significantly but is not included in the tool
Since the 1970s, Santa Isabel has been a place for young Colombians to begin practicing ice mountaineering, because of its ‘relative accessibility, multiple routes and variety of slopes’.
But scientists have observed its rapid diminishment in recent years as Colombia’s ‘endearing white giant’ approaches an ‘imminent extinction’.
As the tool explains, thousands of glaciers have already disappeared due to human-caused climate change, which is directly linked to fossil fuel use – but there is no comprehensive list of all of them.
In an accompanying piece published in the journal Science, Professors Howe and Boyer warn that ‘melting glaciers are a signal of climate disruption’.
‘Earth has now entered a new period in which glaciers are not simply retreating but are disappearing altogether,’ they say.
‘Consequences of glacial loss have a variety of effects on natural and social environments on a planetary level.’
Glacier melting contributes to rising sea levels, affects water resources downstream, damages ecosystems, increases the risk of natural disasters, and can compound other natural hazards such as increasing the formation of icebergs.
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