Some of Switzerland's minor glaciers have lost significant amounts of ice this summer amid record heat levels, with scientists forced to end some of their measuring programmes as no ice remains.
"What we are seeing has been stronger than anything we thought possible so far," according to Matthias Huss, who heads the Glamos glacier measurement network at the ETH Zurich.
Some of the layers of ice at the Corvatsch glacier in south-eastern Switzerland that were formed around 7,000 years ago have melted, he told dpa. The dating of the ice is based on earlier measurements made by the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
The measuring programme at Corvatsch will be stopped as no ice is left at the measuring sites, Huss said. "So the only thing left for us to do is to collect all the material and clear it away."
The Glamos programme's scientists have been measuring glaciers for decades, assessing snow volume levels in winter and snow melt in summer.
The team decided to phase out its measurement programmes on three smaller glaciers in 2019, at Pizolgletscher, Vadret dal Corvatsch and Schwarzbachfirn.
They had briefly hoped to continue the measurements for slightly longer, however, as loss rates slowed last year. "But the losses this summer were too bad," said Huss, referring to the unprecedented hot weather that means it is no longer possible to measure further ice loss for technical reasons.
