Italy sampling Europe's smallest glacier

Introducing Calderon Glacier (AP), Italy — In a race against time, Italian scientists research, analyze and sample Europe's southernmost glacier before it melts and disappears due to rising global temperatures.

On March 13, the researchers conducted a preliminary radar survey of the Calderon glacier in the central part of the Apennines, and they plan to return next month to climb and take samples. These samples will be stored in Antarctica for future research.

“These glaciers can tell us about the climate and environmental history of the Mediterranean,” says Jacopo Gabrieli, a researcher at the Polar Science Institute of the Italian National Research Council.

The Associated Press, along with Gabrielli and his team, went to a snowy glacier for radar research.They arrived at the top by helicopter and traveled the slopes of the Gran Sasso massif. Researchers explored the terrain with electromagnetic equipment to determine the stratification of the glacier.

The study “can record the depth and shape between snow and ice, between ice and rock; in this way, it is possible to measure the thickness and reconstruct the morphology of the bottom of a glacier.” “, said Stefano Urbini, a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, who participated in the study.

The small Italian glacier, which has already been divided into two due to global warming, is an important thermometer for climate change and a treasure trove of atmospheric information. Under the snow, glaciers expect to find a 25 meter thick layer of ice and debris covering the glacier.

Calderon samples are moved to the World Archive “Memory of Ice” in Antarctica, a natural freezer under construction at the Franco-Italian Concordia station, where it is stored at minus 50 degrees Celsius.

According to Italian researchers, glaciers of less than 3,600 meters will disappear by 2100 if temperatures continue to rise at the current rate. A 2,700-meter-high calderon could melt much earlier by 2050 unless drastic measures are taken.

“Through this glacier, we can explain climate change, why it changes, how people influence it, and what we can do to reduce our impact on the planet,” says Gabrieli. I said that.