Rapid Fire
Humboldt Glacier
- 22 May 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, Venezuela has become the first country to likely lose all its glaciers due to climate change.
- The last remaining glacier, Humboldt, has shrunk significantly and is now classified as an ice field.
- Venezuela used to be home to six glaciers (5 of them vanished by 2011), located about 5,000 metres above sea level in the Andes mountains.
- The Andes mountains, have experienced significant temperature increases, accelerating glacier melt.
- These are the mountain systems of South America with an average height of 8,900 kilometres.
- It ranges from the southern tip of South America to the continent’s northernmost coast on the Caribbean covering parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
- The 2023 El Nino event further intensified melting in the Humboldt Glacier.
- Similar to Venezuela, many glaciers worldwide are disappearing faster than expected, with two-thirds of total glaciers projected to vanish by 2100, according to a 2023 study.
- Hindukush Himalayan glaciers also face a major threat, potentially losing 80% of their volume by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions remain high.
