The 'shrinking' giant of the Alps: how Mont Blanc loses 21 centimeters every year

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After days of hard work. Two days of exposure to countless cliffs, avalanches with all the bad milk in the world, which at the slightest carelessness throw you into the gutter (and here the gutter has a height of more than 600 meters). After 48 hours enduring the hammering of the high altitude in your temples and in your guts the cramps of that inhuman height and fear, when you balance on the crest ice ridge, at 4,807 meters above sea level, the truth is that matter little 91 centimeters.

Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe, has lost nearly a meter in height since it was last measured four years ago. To be exact, it

. This is the result of recent measurements made by the team of expert French surveyors, meteorologists and high mountain guides who have carried out exhaustive measurements of this alpine summit located in Haute-Savoie for years.

Studies have also stripped the giant of his dress of snow and ice, since they have determined with seemingly irrefutable accuracy that, in reality, this mountain is still lower: 4,792 meters. It is the height of its rocky peak. Those 15 meters of elevation difference are occupied by a perpetual ice sheet, which covers the head of the Alpine colossus and is the one that varies each season.

Ant measures compared to the dimensions of the mountain, this decline does not worry the hundreds of mountaineers who reach their summit each year. Yes, it is alarming if you look at its causes.

. It is the same geological event that affects the rest of the glaciers and ice masses of the Alpine Arc. Its cause reaches global dimensions.

The phenomenon is not exclusive to the Alpine chain, but includes all the mountains that have their tops covered with ice, from Everest to the Andean mountain ranges, from Kilimanjaro to the Antarctic mountains.

In the same way, it

, such as the polar

and the Himalayas.

Its ice masses are the most affected by global warming, produced by human activity.

Data collected on 130 glaciers around the world by scientists from

indicate that in 2015 alone they recorded a thinning of 1.1 meters on average and, since 1980, all glaciers in the world have decreased by 20 meters on average .

This decrease is especially dramatic in the Alps, where 14 million people are affected by the quantity and quality of the water that is born in their ice rivers. La Mer de Glace, the most important glacier in the Mont Blanc massif and the third largest in the Alps, is a good example of this.

. Since 1860 it has shrunk two and a half kilometers and 200 meters in thickness. Regression extending from the retreating moraines to the top of the alpine giant.

According to the data recorded by the

(CREA) throughout the past 20th century in the Alpine range, temperatures increased by 2º Celsius.

A situation that is aggravated when looking at the statistics of the 21st century, in which 16 of the last 17 years have been the warmest in history.

These variations, together with the decrease in rainfall, have led to profound changes in the Alpine landscapes.

Along with the glacial regression, it is necessary to point out the

.

Since 1970, there has been a decrease in the period that the snow covers the middle alpine mountain, up to 2,500 meters of altitude.

In Mont Blanc this decrease is one month compared to before that date.

The thawing of permafrost, the permanently frozen topsoil, is another serious consequence of severe impacts on the Alpine Arc. The thawing of that layer that has held the rock together for thousands of years as if it were a glue, is causing enormous changes in the orography and landscape of the mountain range, dramatically in the Mont Blanc massif.

Converted into the laboratory of climate change, the retreat of its glaciers and the decrease in innovation periods, this melting is added.

. The Dru is the most dramatic case. This stylized 3,754-meter-high spire has suffered successive collapses as if it were a wet sugar. Its rocky walls have collapsed into sections up to 600 meters high, a hundred wide and several meters thick.

.

Scientists assure that these processes will continue.

Not in vain the melting of the permafrost and the regression of the ice fields have Mont Blanc the most visible and guarded place.

According to the historical record, which dates back to the 19th century, the mountain has done nothing but decrease its size since then.

So far in the 21st century, the average reduction in its height is 21 centimeters per year, although in recent years this decrease has risen to a thickness close to one meter.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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