“In 2015, scientists estimated that this glacier extended around 0.1 square kilometers. By 2024, the ice surface had shrunk to cover approximately one tenth of that surface,” details NASA.
Although some experts consider that what remains of the Humboldt Glacier continues to have great cultural and scientific value, it has been highlighted that technically it is no longer considered a glacier, but rather a stagnant ice field.
“Although there is no universally accepted size criterion that defines a glacier, scientists generally agree that an ice field of this size is stagnant, meaning it is too small to flow downslope under the pressure of its own weight. According to that definition, Venezuela is now free of glaciers”says NASA.
But what is a glacier?
The United States Geological Survey defines it as follows: “A glacier is a large, perennial accumulation of crystalline ice, snow, rocks, sediments, and often liquid water that originates on land and moves downhill under the influence of its own weight and gravity.”
He continues: “Over several decades, this continuous accumulation of snow results in the presence of a snow mass large enough for the process of metamorphism from snow to glacial ice to begin.”
The agency says that glaciers generally form in places where average annual temperatures are close to the freezing point, where winter precipitation produces significant accumulations of snow, and where temperatures during the rest of the year do not cause total loss of accumulation. of snow from the previous winter.
However, in the case of the Humboldt Glacier, these last conditions mentioned by the United States Geological Survey, and that help give life to the glaciers, have been affected by climate change, which has led to its death.
NASA and Humboldt Glacier
Regarding Humboldt’s longevity, NASA says the glacier survived as long as it did in part because of its altitude. But it was not enough.
NASA explains that, “surrounded by extremely steep slopes, the Humboldt Ice sat on a slightly gentler slope where snow could accumulate and compact into glacial ice during the coldest conditions of the past.”
And he continues: “But the altitude and topography have not been enough to sustain the glacier indefinitely. “Evidence from aerial and satellite images, ground observations, and historical sources indicate that the Humboldt Glacier has been in decline for a long time.”
“With an area of 3 square kilometers in 1910, it now covers approximately 0.01 square kilometers, making Venezuela the first post-glacial nation in the Andes,” adds NASA.
The bad news doesn’t end here. Climate change has also taken its toll on other glaciers around the world.
“Glaciers elsewhere in the tropics are showing a similar response to warming. The glaciers of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Puncak Jaya in Indonesia, for example, have become stagnant ice fields,” says NASA.
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