Major Italian Glacier 'Could Melt Completely By 2040', Say Scientists: 'In Irreversible Coma'

Environmentalist group says, in the past five years, the Marmolada has lost 173 acres of its surface area, equivalent to 98 football fields, in a stark testament to effects of climate emergency.

The Marmolada, the largest glacier of the Dolomites — a mountain range in northeastern Italy — could melt completely by 2040, scientists have warned. Experts have attributed this to rising temperatures and snow droughts. 

The findings were shared with the public by Italian scientists who participated in a campaign called 'Caravan of Glaciers' launched by Legambiente, an environmentalist group, and the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) with the support of the Italian Glacier Committee. The scientists, who have been monitoring glaciers as part of the campaign, said on Monday that Marmolada was losing between 7 and 10 cm of depth a day. 

A press release issued by Legambiente said that, in the past five years, the Marmolada had lost 173 acres of its surface area, equivalent to 98 football fields, in a stark testament to the effects of the climate emergency. It stated that the glacier was now in an “irreversible coma”, adding that the Marmolada had withdrawn by 1,200 metres since the beginning of scientific measurements in 1888.

“At this rate, by 2040, the Marmolada glacier will no longer exist,” the release said.

The climate emergency is said to have had an impact across the Italian Alps. Winter droughts with very little snowfall combined with unusually high summer temperatures are causing the glaciers to rapidly melt.

Two of the largest glaciers in Italy — the Adamello, located between Lombardy and Trentino, and Forni, in Lombardy — have shown worrying trends as well. Forni has reportedly retreated 800 metres within the past 30 years and 2 km over the past century. Since 2016, the Adamello glacier, the largest in Italy, has retreated "~200m due to global warming", according to Copernicus, the Earth observation arm of the EU's space programme. 

In 2022, a glacier on the Marmolada mountain collapsed, which sent an avalanche of ice, snow and rocks down the slope, killing 11 people. 

Due to the glaciers melting, tons of waste has resurfaced in the area, including perfectly preserved weapons, sledges, letters, diaries, and even bodies of soldiers who fought during World War I.