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London: The world's glaciers are melting up to 100 times faster than any time during the last 350 years.
The findings, based on a study of Patagonia, South America,haveworrying implications for millions of people who rely on the slow moving bodies of ice for fresh water. The quantity of ice lost from the 270 Patagonian glaciers is equivalent to filling Windermere in the Lake district more than 1,700 times, the journal Nature Geoscience reports.
The researchers,ledby Neil Glasser of Aberystwyth University, Britain, analysed the rocky debris left by glaciers on the sides of mountains to work out how big they once were — and how much ice has vanished, according to the Daily Mail. Since the Little Ice Age ended in Patagonia in the middle of the17thcentury,the270 glaciersthat nowcover an area of at least 0.4 square miles have lost 145 cubic miles of ice.
Because water is denser than ice, that is equivalent to about 130 cubic miles of water. "The glaciershavelost a lotless ice up until 30 years ago than had been thought," said Glasser. "The real killer is that in the last 30 years the rate of loss has gone up 100 times abovethe long term average.It'sscary."
The professor said the South American glaciers were at a similar latitude in thesouthernhemisphere asthe Alps are in the northern hemisphere. Glaciers everywhere in the world are retreating and couldbelosing ice more quickly than many experts realise. IANS
The findings, based on a study of Patagonia, South America,haveworrying implications for millions of people who rely on the slow moving bodies of ice for fresh water. The quantity of ice lost from the 270 Patagonian glaciers is equivalent to filling Windermere in the Lake district more than 1,700 times, the journal Nature Geoscience reports.
The researchers,ledby Neil Glasser of Aberystwyth University, Britain, analysed the rocky debris left by glaciers on the sides of mountains to work out how big they once were — and how much ice has vanished, according to the Daily Mail. Since the Little Ice Age ended in Patagonia in the middle of the17thcentury,the270 glaciersthat nowcover an area of at least 0.4 square miles have lost 145 cubic miles of ice.
Because water is denser than ice, that is equivalent to about 130 cubic miles of water. "The glaciershavelost a lotless ice up until 30 years ago than had been thought," said Glasser. "The real killer is that in the last 30 years the rate of loss has gone up 100 times abovethe long term average.It'sscary."
The professor said the South American glaciers were at a similar latitude in thesouthernhemisphere asthe Alps are in the northern hemisphere. Glaciers everywhere in the world are retreating and couldbelosing ice more quickly than many experts realise. IANS
VANISHING ACT
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