Venezuela becomes the first modern country to lose all its glaciers » Explorersweb

In an event that was both momentous and deeply disturbing, scientists have downgraded a glacier in the Venezuelan Andes to just an “ice field.” This change in the status of the Humboldt Glacier – also called La Corona – makes Venezuela the first modern-day country in the world to lose all its glaciers.

“Other countries lost their glaciers decades ago after the end of the Little Ice Age, but Venezuela may be the first country to lose them in modern times,” said climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. The guard. He added that Indonesia, Mexico and Slovenia are likely to be the next to receive this dubious honor.

Although the ice field formally known as the Humboldt Glacier still covers an area of ​​two hectares, a glacier isn’t about size – or at least not about size alone.

“Glaciologists often use a criterion of 0.1 square kilometers (10 hectares) as a general definition, but any ice mass above that size must still deform under its own weight (to count as a glacier),” explained glaciologists James Kirkham and Miriam Jackson out. to the BBC.

And that definitely won’t happen anymore with La Corona.

Last man standing

The Humboldt Glacier was kind of the last man standing in Venezuela. Located above 5,000 meters in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, La Corona kept company with five other glaciers. By 2011, all five of his companions had already disappeared.

A glacier must flow downhill under its own weight. La Corona doesn’t do that anymore. Photo: Hendrick Sanchez/Wikimedia Commons

That prompted officials and scientists to keep a close eye on the Humboldt. The Venezuelan government recently even installed a thermal blanket over what was left of it, in an attempt to stop or reverse the melting process. There was some optimism that the Humboldt would make it to 2030 or beyond.

El Nino

But a nasty El Niño, combined with some political unrest in Venezuela, dashed those hopes. By the time the unrest had subsided and scientists could resume monitoring the Humboldt, its inherent glacial character had disappeared.

“In the Andean region of Venezuela, there have been several months with monthly deviations of 3-4˚C above the 1991-2020 average,” Herrera noted..

Mark Maslin, an earth scientist at University College London, says the melting of small glaciers such as Humboldt will not contribute to sea level rise. But such events represent an ongoing trend. And there are broader implications too.

“The loss of (the Humboldt Glacier) marks the loss of much more than the ice itself, it also marks the loss of the many ecosystem services that glaciers provide, from unique microbial habitats to environments of significant cultural value,” said Caroline Clason. a glaciologist at the University of Durham.

“That Venezuela has now lost all its glaciers really symbolizes the changes we can expect to see in our global cryosphere under continued climate change.”

An ice field (or ice sheet, if it’s on the top of a mountain), like the one above on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, just lies there, shrinks and eventually disappears. It doesn’t flow like a glacier. Photo: Jerry Kobalenko