Geneva (AP) – Glaciers in Switzerland faced a “huge” cast iron this year with a 3% drop in the total volume – the fourth largest annual decrease recorded – due to the effects of global warming, the main Swiss glaciologists reported on Wednesday.
The withdrawal of this year means that the mass of ice in Switzerland – which houses the most glaciers in Europe – has decreased by a quarter in the last decade, the Surveillance Glacier Glacier surveillance group and the Swiss Academy of Sciences have declared in their report.
“The ice fusion in Switzerland was again enormous in 2025,” said scientists. “A winter with a shallow combined snow depth with Heat function in June And August led to a loss of 3% of the volume of glaciers. »»
Switzerland is home to nearly 1,400 glaciers, most of all European countries, and the mass of ice and its gradual merger have implications for hydroelectricity, tourism, agriculture and water resources in many European countries.
More than 1,000 small glaciers in Switzerland have already disappeared, the experts said.
The teams reported that a winter with little snow had been followed by heat waves in June – on June second, the heaviest recorded – which left the snow reserves exhausted before July. The ice masses began to melt earlier than ever, they said.
“Glaciers are clearly withdrawn due to anthropogenic global warming,” said Matthias Huss, chief of glamos, referring to climate change caused by human activity.
“This is the main cause of the acceleration that we see in the past two years,” added Huss, who is also a glaciologist at Ethz University in Zurich.
The narrowing is the fourth largest after those in 2022, 2023 and in 2003.
Retirement and the loss of glaciers also have an impact on the landscape of Switzerland, which means that the mountains move and the earth are unstable.
The Swiss authorities were on increased alert for such changes after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier has a mountain side that covered almost all South village of Blastten in May.
