The Impact of Melting Glaciers on National Boundaries
Exploration of how melting glaciers are reshaping landscapes and altering national borders across the globe.
The Impact of Melting Glaciers on National Boundaries
In Europe and around the globe, melting glaciers are transforming both landscapes and national borders. In this article, Elzė Buslavičiūtė and Dr Laurynas Jukna, researchers at the Institute of Geosciences of Vilnius University, discuss space-based observations of this phenomenon.
Europe’s Glaciers and Their Importance
When we visualize glaciers, we often think of vast ice sheets like those found in Antarctica or Greenland. However, the world is home to a diversity of glaciers—over 200,000—that don’t fall under the category of ice sheets. These include glacial valleys, hanging glaciers, mountain glaciers, and ice caps.
The Role of Glaciers
Glaciers are massive ice bodies that move under the force of gravity. They form when snow accumulation exceeds snow melting. Over time, this snow compacts into firn and eventually transforms into solid glacier ice. Roughly 20,000–22,000 years ago, glaciers shaped present-day Europe. Today, they continue to play a critical role, storing freshwater and regulating water temperatures.
Monitoring Melting from Space
As glaciers in the Alps retreat, their melting has accelerated significantly due to climate change. According to observations from Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland, the area of glaciers in the Swiss Alps decreased from 1,311 km² in 1973 to 961 km² in 2016, illustrating a significant loss.
NASA’s Landsat mission has provided invaluable data on glacier loss, showcasing dramatic changes in glacial areas. A comparison of satellite images from August 2001 to August 2024 reveals a striking reduction in glacier coverage, serving as a stark reminder of the ongoing impacts of climate change.
