The heat wave during the month of June and the lack of precipitation contributed to an accelerated melting of the Mer de Glace, the largest glacier in France.
The Mer de Glace has lost 3.5 m of its thickness
According to Le Dauphiné, right next to the ice cave, 600 meters above its downstream end, the Mer de Glace has lost 3.5 meters in thickness.
“At this precise point, the glacier is losing almost 10 cm in thickness every day,” says Luc Moreau, an independent glaciologist. Saturday 2nd July 2022, as part of one of the workshops organized by the Arc'teryx, the doctor in alpine geography went with a group of curious people to the glacier.
The scientist associated with the Edytem Laboratory went to measure, on one of the bamboo probes planted in the Mer de Glace, the amount of ice that has disappeared since the last reading, on 22 May.
A group of freeriders in search of answers
An accelerated melting that should confirm the measurements carried out by the Institute of Environmental Geosciences, the organization that studies the melting of this emblematic glacier.
Among the group supervised by Luc Moreau, there were high-level skiers and snowboarders that day, including Victor Daviet from Annecy.
“I skied a lot on glaciers. A few days ago I was in Les Deux Alpes when I learned that its glacier might have to close. Logically, it pushes me to come and learn a little more about these endangered giants, ” he noted.
Global warming
Brad Carlson, ecologist and mountain guide, found that plants appear to have colonized an islet in the moraine a few meters from the measurement "Another sign of global warming", he explained.
"High altitude glaciers, located on very steep slopes, could be destabilized in the future with global warming", prophesied the day before Luc Moreau.
Source: @Le Dauphiné Libéré
