The glacier on Mount Marmolada, the highest peak in the Italian Dolomites, could disappear within 15 years due to global warming. The ANSA agency writes about it with reference to the research of scientists from the University of Padua.
Ten years ago, the glacier lost five hectares a year, and in the last three years it was nine hectares each time. The cause is not only high temperatures, reminded Professor Mauro Varotto. The glacier is shrinking because its volume has shrunk and it is no longer a “living system”. As soon as the thickness according to Varott is less than one or two meters, the surface of the glacier begins to deteriorate.
“The glacier has lost more than 80 percent of its volume in the last 70 years,” said Aldino Bondesan, who coordinates glaciologists. “Maybe he only has 15 years left to live,” he added. In 1954, the glacier had 95 million square meters and has since shrunk to its current 14 million square meters.
During the First World War, Austrian soldiers dug a labyrinth of ice tunnels in the glacier. It is estimated that the tunnels were up to fifty meters deep. The soldiers descended through the cracks and dug twelve kilometers of corridors that formed the legendary ice city.
Italy declared war on Austria in 1915 in order to gain the territories to which it claimed from the Habsburg Empire. In an effort to break through the Austrian line, Italian troops attacked Austrian soldiers in trenches on the slopes of Marmolada. However, the ice city never succeeded in recharging them, and in 1917 Italy was forced to withdraw its troops from the entire region.
From time to time, the melting ice reveals some evidence of wartime: a dead soldier, food stores, dormitories piled from wooden beams, weapons or personal belongings.
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