High-altitude glacier archives lost due to climate change-related melting

C J Huber; A Eichler; E Mattea; S Brütsch; T M Jenk; J Gabrieli; C Barbante; M Schwikowski

doi:10.1038/s41561-023-01366-1

High-altitude glacier archives lost due to climate change-related melting

Nat Geosci. 2024;17(2):110-113. doi: 10.1038/s41561-023-01366-1. Epub 2024 Jan 26.

Authors

C J Huber^{1

2

3}, A Eichler^{1

3}, E Mattea⁴, S Brütsch¹, T M Jenk^{1

3}, J Gabrieli⁵, C Barbante^{5

6}, M Schwikowski^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland.
² Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
³ Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
⁵ Institute for Polar Sciences, National Research Council, Venice, Italy.
⁶ Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy.

Abstract

Global warming has caused widespread surface lowering of mountain glaciers. By comparing two firn cores collected in 2018 and 2020 from Corbassière glacier in Switzerland, we demonstrate how vulnerable these precious archives of past environmental conditions have become. Within two years, the soluble impurity records were destroyed by melting. The glacier is now irrevocably lost as an archive for reconstructing major atmospheric aerosol components.

Keywords: Climate-change impacts; Cryospheric science.