Alpine Glaciers Predicted to Shrink 50% by 2050
24th January 2024
Last modified on January 27th, 2024
It is the latest stark warning on the melting of the glaciers and comes in a new Franco-Swiss study.
The study was published by scientists from the University of Lausanne in collaboration with the University of Grenoble, the two federal technology institutes (EPFL and ETH Zurich) and the University of Zurich.
It claims 46% of the volume of ice in the Alps will have disappeared by 2050 according to computer models.
This could rise to 65%, if based on data from the last ten years only.
“The data used to construct the scenarios stops at 2022, a year which was followed by an exceptionally hot summer. It is therefore likely that the situation will be even worse than the one we present,” says Samuel Cook, an UNIL researcher and first author of the study.
Unlike traditional models, which make estimates for the end of the century, the new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, takes into account a shorter time frame.
The scientists carried out simulations using artificial intelligence algorithms.
They trained their model to understand physical concepts using deep learning methods and fed it real climate and glaciological data.
Mont Fort glacier, Verbier. Image © PlanetSKI
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- Covering glaciers: An expensive way of preventing the ice melting
