The viability of Pyrenean glaciers is threatened years ago by the influence of climate change. The Monte Lost is one of the 15 glaciers that remain in the Pyrenees and this week has been included in the Global Glacier Casualty List, a record that documents the glaciers that have disappeared or are at risk of it. This list is made on the occasion of the 2025 statement as an International Year of glaciers preservation
Nacho López Moreno is a researcher at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC) and has chosen, along with other experts, the Monte Lost glacier as an example to be part of this list, “we could really have chosen any of the 15 glaciers of the Pyrenees Because everyone is in the same situation, their disappearance is imminent. We chose Monte Lost because they also looked for glaciers with history, Monte Lost brings together much, especially in alpinism, of the interest of naturalists and cartographers, which guarantees a very good record that allows to see their evolution. We have told the history of the glacier and our future forecasts, if the climate that has passed in the previous ten years is repeated in the next ten years, surely Monte Lost’s glacier, as practically all of the Pyrenees, will disappear. ”
As the Aragon newspaper has advanced, this list of climatic victims establishes the end of the Monte lost glacier in 2035. The oldest ice of this glacier dated by scientists is 2,000 years old, however, it will not survive to this time of global warming that we are going through.
Throughout the twentieth century, the glacier has been losing entity, but it was not until the last two decades when this has become more accused. According to the information of the Global Glacier Casualty List, between 1984 and 2010, the glacier was reduced more than 30%. Since 2011, researchers from the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC) have annually controlled the glacier situation, finding that it continues to be constantly reduced. In these years, it has been observed that it has lost more than 15 meters thick, “this is the equivalent of a five -storey house, and there are some areas where up to 30 meters have been lost. It has also receded a lot, although perhaps in this glacier the loss of thickness has been more important than extension. ”
In the 2021/22 season, he lost 3.9 meters thick, followed by 3.7 meters in the 2022/23 season, tripling the average annual losses of the previous ten years. Moreno explains that in 2011 a rocky outcrop appeared “that has been growing to be a mass of rocks of a lot of thickness that divides the glacier into two” so that “there is a part that can no longer be considered a glacier because it has no movement and the Current glacier has been held to an area less raised to the one that gives less solar radiation. A glacier ceases to be when it loses its movement. Within ten years there will surely be some ice in the area, but very difficult to think that it has some movement, which will become a fridge. ”
Of the Glaciers of the Pyrenees, the one of Monte Lost is the largest next to that of Maladeta-Aneto. The IPE-CSIC performs Your follow -up Since 2011 to see how they behave in these final phases, to what extent it accelerates or can slow down, and it is an example for many other mountains that within a few decades will face this situation. In addition to the global temperature increase, “the glacier faces other problems that accelerate the fusion of ice such as in recent decades the slope is increasingly pronounced, making it difficult to accumulate snow. In 2011, a limestone rock cliff was exposed that acts as a radiator by accumulating more energy, in addition the sedimentation of saharian dust dragged by the wind dyes the snow of brown color by decreasing its reflectivity and increasing the fusion, ”they expose on the website of the website of the CSIC
Moreno explains that the increased of temperatures, more accused in the last 30 years, is the cause of the state of glaciers not only in the Pyrenees, but globally. “For a glacier to exist what you need is that a considerable part of its extension is below the average annual temperature of zero degrees, where you can make ice with the snow that falls.” In the case of Monte Lost It is starting to go back because it melts much more than it produces. ”
In 2011 there were 24 glaciers in the Aragonese Pyrenees, now there are 15 and “with clear signs of movement three or four, the rest is difficult for us to recognize these signs, but show small signs for which we still consider them glaciers.” The life expectations of these is 10 or 15 years, according to Moreno, “unless there was an extreme period of colder temperatures, although nothing suggests that this will happen, all climatic models continue to mark a global warming” . Moreno explains that, although the emissions to the atmosphere are now drastically reduced, “it is late” for the Pyrenean glaciers, since the reductions will be reflected within a few decades. However, he reiterates the importance of doing so “because now we have lost the glaciers, but if we continue resources such as snow or water quality they will also be affected by climate change and this may be in time to soften The impact ”. Moreno concludes that, globally, glaciers are monitored since 1950. In these 75 years, only five the mass balance has been positive, the other 70 years are losses: “The disappearance of the great glaciers of the world can have negative consequences for many people. ”
The Global List of glaciers victims It aims to remember the names and tell the stories of selected glaciers that are in critical danger or that have already disappeared worldwide. The continuous and strong melting and the growing imbalance of glaciers are observed throughout the world. The Glacier Casualty List project was founded in 2024 thanks to a collaboration between the Rice University, the University of Iceland, the Iceland Gacological Society, the World Surveillance Service of Glacier and UNESCO. The project contributes to the International Year of the preservation of the 2025 glaciers of the United Nations.
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