More than 300 glaciers across the western United States have disappeared since the mid-20th century, according to a new review published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the middle of the last century, over 1,450 glaciers spread across six western states covered 217 square miles, or 562 square kilometers. Today their combined area has shrunk by 35 percent, the study found, and the loss appears to be speeding up.
The vanished glaciers shrank to the size of about two football fields and stopped moving, making them functionally extinct, according to the research. Lead author Andrew Fountain, a geographer at Portland State University, said the count surprised even the researchers.
Glaciers in the Beartooth-Absaroka range of southern Montana are thinning fastest, losing about 1.5 feet of ice thickness each year, while glaciers in Washington’s Cascade Range shrink more slowly, at about half a foot per year, helped by higher elevations, cooler summers, and heavier snowfall.
Scientists blame the losses on rising global temperatures driven by the burning of fossil fuels. As the ice goes, so does a slow-release reservoir of cool water that feeds ecosystems and agriculture across the West.
Source: Phys.org
