Austria's largest glacier to disappear by 2050

 

Scientists predicted that Pasterze, Austria's longest glacier, could disappear almost entirely by 2050. Glaciers in the Hohe Tauern mountain range in southern Austria have melted at an extremely high rate during 2015. In recent years, the speed at which the glaciers have melted has notably increased. From 1969 to 1998, the glacier lost an average of 0.65 meters in ice thickness annually. Between 1998 and 2012, this more than doubled to 1.41 meters. The glacier on Grossglockner, Austria's tallest mountain, has shrunk by as much as 10 meters in less than a year due to higher temperatures. Human development is partly responsible.