Andes Glaciers Melting Faster due to Climate Change

The world is warming at a faster pace and is affecting the people and the environment. Climate has remained as a serious global problem and will continue to be a threat if there is a delay in action.

Falling into the clutches of climate change is the glaciers of the Andes Mountains. A latest comprehensive review of the Andean glacier observations by an international team of scientists states that the glaciers in the tropical Andes have been retreating at an increasing rate since the 1970s.

Alteration in the climate is to be blamed for the melting of the glaciers. The region has warmed by 0.7 degree C in the past 50 years. The Andean population will suffer in the future, as the rapid loss of glaciers will affect the water supply.

A team of scientists from Europe, South America and the U.S. reported that they noticed a steep increase in the rate of melting over the past few decades in the tropical Andes.

According to Antoine Rabatel, the lead author and a researcher at the Laboratory for Glaciology and Environmental Geophysics in Grenoble, France, the Andes glaciers have lost 30 to 50 percent of glaciers since the late 1970s. The small glaciers at low altitudes are more prone to melting.

The tropical Andes cover nearly 99 percent of all tropical glaciers in the world and most of them are in Peru. The Santa River valley will be severely affected and thousands of inhabitants who rely on the glacier for water will also be affected. Nearly 1.35 meters ice thickness is lost per year by the glaciers that are situated at an altitude below 5,400 meters.

"Because the maximum thickness of these small, low-altitude glaciers rarely exceeds 40 metres, with such an annual loss they will probably completely disappear within the coming decades," Rabatel said in a news release.

"The ongoing recession of Andean glaciers will become increasingly problematic for regions depending on water resources supplied by glacierised mountain catchments, particularly in Peru," he said.

The study was conducted to provide a scientific community with a complete summary of the status of glaciers in the tropical Andes and determine the cause for melting. They hope that this study has a higher impact.