Glaciers losing ice mass

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The 48 glaciers of the Southern Alps monitored annually by NIWA continue to lose ice mass.

NIWA Senior Climate Scientist Dr Jim Salinger said today that after analysis of photographs taken on the survey of the glaciers it was apparent they had lost more ice than they gained during the past year.

“This is the fourth year in five in which the glaciers have lost ice mass, an ongoing trend which began in 1998. The loss over the past year was among the most pronounced recorded.”

He said the surveys had been carried out every year for the past 25 years and they clearly showed that glaciers such as the Fox and Franz Josef were shrinking.

“Should this loss of ice mass continue we can expect the glaciers will continue to retreat further back in the valleys where they are situated.”

Dr Salinger said the annual NIWA flights recorded the height of the glaciers’ snow line at the end of summer.

“This reveals how much snow the glaciers have lost or gained during the past year. The higher the snow line, the less the amount of snow that has accumulated to feed the glacier.”

Snowfalls last winter in the Southern Alps were below average because of more anti-cyclones and fewer westerly winds than normal.

He said the level of the glacier snow lines was unrelated to the amount of snow that might fall on the country’s skifields in winter.

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