Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru
Mountain glaciers around the world are melting rapidly. For example, glaciers of the European Alps have lost about half of their volume since 1850. In the last 100 years the glaciers of New Zealand’s Southern Alps have lost 25% of their area. While higher rates of melting initially increase water flowing from these formations, wasting mountain glaciers threatens water resources for drinking and farming in many parts of the world.
Tropical glaciers are in greatest danger. University of Ohio geology professor Lonnie Thompson has made his reputation monitoring and drilling ice cores in mountain glaciers in tropical regions, including Bolivia, Peru, Tibet and Tanzania. Unlike polar ice sheets, these glaciers are relatively small and generally craggy. Therefore, Thompson can’t fly by plane or helicopter up to these peaks with tons of gear, the way polar glaciologists do, and set up comfortable camps. Instead, he climbs the peaks on foot and carries his samples out. Thompson has achieved a legendary stature in the climate research community for his numerous successful expeditions. Among many results from his research, Thompson has shown that Mount Kilimanjaro’s glacier lost about 80 percent of its volume in the last century and will most likely be gone by 2015.
Thompson has shown that the Quelccaya in the Andes, the world’s largest tropical glacier, has lost 30 percent of its volume in 40 years and that it’s melting at an accelerating rate. I joined him as he collected plants that have become visible as the ice cap has receded (proving that Quelccaya is smaller than its been in more than 5,000 years).
I also accompanied Thompson on a side trip to a glacier that plays a role in a legend of an 18th century appearance of Jesus. The legend spawned an annual pilgrimage, which was captured on film by a photographer 70 years ago. Thompson compared the vintage picture with conditions there today, and again found dramatic melting.
Related Links
Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru
- Listen to Meltdown, Dan’s radio documentary on the impact of global warming on the world’s ice
- Listen to the portion of Meltdown that deals with Lonnie Thompson’s research
- Listen to Tropical Ice, Dan’s feature for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Lonnie Thompson’s research
- Listen to the podcast Dan produced for National Geographic about Thompson’s expedition to Quelccaya
- View a photo gallery of ice threatened by global warming
- View a photo gallery of scientific field research Dan has visited
PHOTO GALLERY OF QUELCCAYA
- View Dan's Photographs of QUELCCAYA ICE CAP
