The Marmolada risks disappearing: only 10 years of life remain according to data from the glaciological campaign

A drastic premonition. The Marmolada would not be more than 10 years old. In the hottest summer at altitude since 1991, the deviation from the averages was more than 3° C. On the ARPAV Punta Rocca station, at 3250 meters above sea level, only on three days was a negative minimum observed (-0.6 C absolute value) and there was no day with a negative average temperature or even snowfall at the highest altitudes.

The data collected

The eighth edition of the Participatory Glaciological Campaign on the Marmolada promoted by the Geography Museum of the University of Padua concluded with these results, which saw the collaboration of researchers from the University of Padua, ARPAV, the Italian Glaciological Foundation, students and citizen volunteers from four different regions. The 2026 campaign made it possible to collect updated data, which is fundamental for continuing to monitor what remains of the main glacier in the Dolomites and better understanding the impact of climate change on a local scale. The data collected confirm the continuous retreat of the main glacier, with an average retreat on the frontal signals of 23 m (last year there were 8), confirming a record year from the point of view of summer temperatures, which even surpassed the very hot 2003.

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Record glacier loss

"The data collected this year aggravate the trend already evident in recent decades, marking a new negative record of reduction in surface area of the glacier, which in one year lost 9 hectares, dropping to a total of 83 hectares compared to 92 last year, now far from the 100 hectares of 2023 - comments Professor Mauro Varotto, professor of the Department of Historical, Geographical and Antiquity Sciences and scientific director of the participatory glaciological campaign -. It is a record loss that we had only recorded in 2022, with the tragic collapse of the glacier. If summers like the one just passed are repeated, the glacier could only have about ten years of life." "Overall, the frontal measurements record a retreat that has tripled compared to last year (-23 m, on average) - underlines Giovanni Benetton, responsible for the measurements for the Italian Glaciological Foundation this year - and the most dramatic situation is that of the western front where in a signal we have recorded a retreat of 120 meters in two years, with a height of the front now over 2900 metres. The glacier is completely devoid of residual snow and the only one that remains is now that under the tarpaulins geotextiles".

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Hot, the Marmolada glacier retreats 200 meters in 2 weeks