Mont Blanc Shrinks by Over Two Metres
The highest mountain in the Alps lost an Olympic swimming pool worth of ice
A new survey of the tallest mountain in the Alps has recorded that Mont Blanc has shrunk 2.2 metres since 2021. The study marked the height at 4,805.59 metres. The previous measurement, which was taken in 2021, marked it at 4,807.81 metres.
Denis Borel, one of the surveyors, told TF1 in France that it was a “somewhat exceptional year.” Borel added that Mont Blanc lost “3,500 cubic metres of ice and snow compared to the volume measured in 2021, representing roughly the volume of an Olympic swimming pool… quite considerable compared to the measurements of previous eras.”
The Guardian quoted Luc Moreau, a glaciologist from Chamonix, as saying, “This is not representative of global climate warming, because the climatic conditions at the summit of Mont Blanc are rather polar.”
Mont Blanc could potentially grow in height by the next time it’s measured Jean des Garets, chief geometer in the Haute-Savoie department said, “We’re gathering the data for future generations, we’re not here to interpret them, we leave that up to the scientists. After these measurement campaigns, we have already learned a lot: we know that the summit is in perpetual movement both in altitude with variations of almost five metres, and in position.”
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