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Updated February 3rd, 2022 at 19:47 IST

Mount Everest's highest glacier is rapidly losing ice; might affect billion people: Study

Mount Everest's South Col Glacier nearly 55 metres of ice in the last 25 year at a rate 80 times greater than its 2,000 years of formation, the study says

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
Mount Everest
IMAGE: Unsplash | Image:self
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Scaling Mount Everest might soon get tougher than ever as rising temperature due to climate change is rapidly melting the highest point on the Earth, warns a new study. What's worse, is that the authors from the University of Maine said that the melting of South Col Glacier, Everest's highest glacier might result in increased avalanches as it is losing decades-worth of ice each year. Surprisingly, the study revealed that nearly 55 metres of this glacier have melted in the last 25 years, which is a rate 80 times greater than its 2,000 years of formation.

Mariusz Potocki, a glaciochemist who was part of the study said as per Daily Mail-

Climate predictions for the Himalayas suggest continued warming and continued glacier mass loss, and even the top of Everest is impacted by anthropogenic source warming.

The melting can affect a billion people: Study

The study suggests that the increased number of avalanches due to rising global temperatures can affect nearly a billion people. Reportedly, the water from the Himalayas is widely used for drinking and irrigation purposes and a thick snow cover running down the slopes would massively disrupt the water supply. As a result, future expeditions to Mount Everest would also become more difficult as the bedrocks would be more exposed due to climate change. 

These conclusions were reportedly made using data from the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition conducted in 2019. For the study, the research team had reportedly installed two weather stations at heights of 8,420 meters and 7,945 meters. These weather stations, which are the highest weather stations in the world were installed to collect and analyse ice core samples from the highest points.

Following the analysis, the researchers found that the glacier ice was thinning at a rate of 2 meters every year reason for which was attributed to the glacier's lost ability to reflect the solar radiation. Talking about their study, Paul Mayewski, co-author of the study said as per Daily Mail's report, "It answers one of the big questions posed by our 2019 NGS/Rolex Mount Everest Expedition — whether the highest glaciers on the planet are impacted by human-sourced climate change". 

Image: Unsplash

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Published February 3rd, 2022 at 19:47 IST

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