Prokletije

Albania is home to several small glaciers, among the most southerly in Europe, located in the Proklketije montains. A 2017 study reported that for the previous six years, changes in the size of the glaciers and snow patches in the area around Mt. Jezerce had been studied in detail. The study found that the largest of them, the glacieret Jezerce III, has had an average area of 4.5 hectares, down from a reported 1km length in the 1940s. Large fluctuation of the snow area was recorded in 2011–2016, with a considerable shrinkage in the years after 2013.

Dugdale Glacier

There are several thousand glaciers in Antarctica and no one seems to have counted all of them. Wikipedia lists about 500 hat have been given names but this may be less than 10% of the total. One study found 1619 glaciers around the edge of the continent alone. What most studies agree is that the ice is melting in Antarctica, increasingly rapidly. Around 28,000 square kilometres of ice-shelf also collapsed in to the sea and eventually melted between 1960 and 2010.

Viedma Glacier

Argentina is home to around 20 glaciers, many of them parts of the Patagonian Ice fields, remnants of the vast Patagonian Ice Sheet which covered a wider area during the last ice age.  These areas are still among the largest regions of ice on earth, outside Antarctica.  The Viedma Glacier is one of the  larger glacier that are part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, located at the southern end of mainland South America. Between the years 1984 and 2010, the Viedma Glacier reported a retreat rate of 84 metres per year but between 2010 and 2016 that rate of melt more than tripled to 281 metres per year. Pic credit NASA.

Brown Glacier, Australia

In a study published in 2008 “Glacier Recession on Heard Island, Southern Indian Ocean” Douglas Thost and Martin Truffer found glacier retreat has been widespread on Heard Island since the first observations in 1947. They estimated the Brown Glacier had lost around 29% of is mass between 1947 and 2004 decreasing in length from an estimated 6.18km to 4.38km and losing thickness too. The mass loss was consistent with a +0.9 °C warming over the same time span. The study further found that in the three year period at the end of the study from December 2000 to December 2003 the speed of ice loss had accelerated to more than double the 57 year average rate.

Mt Bazardüzü North Face Glaciers

Recognised as among the most southerly glaciers in the northern hemisphere, they are located on the northeast face of Mount Bazarduzuis, a mountain peak in the Greater Caucasus range on the border between Daghestan and Azerbaijan and the country’s highest peak at 4,467 metres.  A 2013 study found glaciers in Azerbaijan shrunk 45% during the 20^th century.

The Glaciers of Bhutan

Bhutan is home to more glaciers than most countries – with around 670 identified. In the late 20th century around 10% of the country’s surface was glaciated. However reports over the past few decades have largely painted a dire picture of rapid glacial retreat due to climate change with the possibility that all of the glaciers in the country will have gone by 2035, or sooner. Many are reported to be retreating by 20-30 metres a year. One report however says that some glaciers may last longer as they are shielded from the heat a little by debris such as rocks lying on their surface. The thawing creates a major issue in the country when it leads to glacial lakes contained within the ice, or formed behind walls of debris, having their walls collapse due to the growing weight of water above and causing sudden floods. An emergency fund has been set up to help communities impacted.

Banski Suhodol

Bulgaria has two small glaciers (glacieret) in the Pirin Mountains, below the Kutelo peak (2908m), the southernmost in Europe and once part of a mighty glacier.  The glacieret is less trhan 100 metres wide/long and exists within a shaded hollow, topped up by avalanche snow each winter, so continues to exist as it has for the past 500 years or so.

Horstman Glacier

The Horstman Glacier is one of the few places in North America open for summer skiing in June and July. Numerous snow camp operators have, however, reported deteriorating conditions on the glacier.  The site of a pilot project developing methods to preserve glaciers, it has snow fencing to trap snow and in 2015 snowmaking machines were installed to add artificial snow to the top of the glacier, with locally-generated hydro-electricity used to power the system.

Mingyong Glacier

Located in the Yunnan Province, the Mingyong Glacier is the lowest lying in China, at just 2700 metres altitude. It is fed by snows which fall on 6740m high Mount Meili and is considered sacred by indigenous local people. The glacier is reported to be retreated at a rate of around 50 metres a year (200 metres lost in a four year study period) and in line with other glaciers in the country, reported to be declining by around 7% annually. The region has also seen a rising tree line.

Nevado del Ruiz

Nevado del Ruiz is a glacier-covered volcano located about 130km west of the capital city Bogotá. In  1959 the glaciated area was 34 square kilometres but this has since decreased due to climate change, and the impact of a catastrophic eruption in 1985.  By 2003 it had reduced to 10 square kilometres and its lowest point moved up the mountain from 4,500 metres in 1985 to 4,900 metres. The meltwater from the glacier feeds two rivers which supply fresh water to around 40 towns, so the likelihood that they will disappear completely is a major concern.

Rwenzori’s Glaciers

The Rwenzori Mountains is a mountain range, with some peaks over 5,000 metres high, of eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). These mountains support glaciers and are one source of the Nile river. An ongoing concern is the impact of climate change on Rwenzori’s glaciers. In 1906, the Rwenzori had 43 named glaciers distributed over six mountains with a total area of 7.5 square kilometres (2.9 sq mi), about half the total glacier area in Africa. By 2005, less than half of these were still present, on only three mountains, with an area of about 1.5 square kilometres (0.58 sq mi). Recent scientific studies, such as those by Richard Taylor of University College London, have attributed this retreat to global climate change

Chalaati

One of the largest glaciers in Georgia and has the lowest terminus position for the whole Caucasus region — 1,980 m above sea level and intrudes into the forest zone. A 2019 study found that due to the impact climate change, the area of the Chalaati Glacier decreased from about 12.2 square km to 9.2 square km over the last century. The drastic change in the size of the glacier was made by comparing old and modern images of glaciers in Georgia which found that overall the glaciers were shrinking at an average rate of 0.4% per year.

Siachen Glacier

At 76 km (47 mi) long, the Siachen Glacier in the Himalayas, which runs along the Indian/Pakistan border, is the second-longest in the world’s non-polar areas. A survey by the Pakistan Meteorological Department in 2007 revealed found the glacier is melting at an alarming rate. On 2007 the rate of retreat was about 110 metres, decreasing in size by about a third since the early 1970s. This compares to a total 914m retreat measured during nearly 30 years between 1929–1958. Another study predicts all glaciers in the region will shrink to about one fifth of their 2011 size on average, by 2035.

Gorodetsky Glacier

The Gorodetsky Glacier is located on the northern slope of the Zailiysky Alatau mountains and is named after archaeologist Vladimir Dmitrievich Gorodetsky who visited it in 1916.  The glacier descends in two branches to (when last measured several years ago) 3770m altitude on one side and 2650m on the other with the top of the glacier at around 4000 metres. Between 1938 and 1961 the glacier retreated by 320m on the left side and the rate of retreat has since accelerated according to reports.

Engilchek

Located in the Central Tian Shan Mountains northeastern Kyrgyzstan, Engilchek is the sixth longest non-polar glacier in the world and is the largest and fastest moving glacier in Kyrgyzstan. At over 60 kilometres long and with an area of 17.2 square kilometres and an ice thickness of roughly 150–200 metres in the bottom parts it’s an impressive glacier, and its upper part extends in to three countries. The glacier is reported to be shrinking fast due to climate change with average temperature growth around 1.6ºC over the past 70 years meaning that, at the turn of the 21st century, according to some projections, half of Kyrgyzstan’s territory may be subject to desertification.

Gran Glaciar Norte

Gran Glaciar Norte is the largest ice cap and snow field in México. It is located on Pico de Orizaba (Volcán Citlaltépetl) (5,636 metres (18,491 ft)) which is the highest point in Mexico. It contains nine named glaciers, including seven outlet glaciers, and a mountain niche glacier. The elevation of these glaciers range from near 5,610 m (18,410 ft) to 4,700 m (15,400 ft). Mexico’s glaciers are condemned to disappear because of climate change, Hugo Delgado, director of the Geophysics Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said in 2018.

Debali Namet

A small glacier below the mountain of Šljeme (2,455m) in the Durmitor massif, is, like others in the region, sustained by avalanching winter and spring snow falling on top of it to form a protective layer from the sun’s warmth through summer and autumn, despite being located well below the snowline for much of the year.  A 2007 study of the glacier by Philip Hughes (the picture left is his copyright) was published.

Te Moeka o Tuawe (Fox Glacier)

A 13 kilometre-long glacier located on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Te Moeka o Tuawe descends 2,600 vertical metres through the Southern Alps and ends up passing through rain forest towards the sea, only 300 metres above sea level. It is one of the few glaciers in the world to report growth of an average of around a metre a week for 24 years between 1985 and 2009, having retreated for the previous century, but it is now in rapid retreat.  It’s 2009 extent is clearly visible as the end of vegetation’s level.

Passu Glacier

Pakistan is home to more than 60 glaciers including some that, unlike most others in the world, appear to be growing, although not in a normal way. They are surging fast to lower altitudes causing a different set of problems. But the main issue of glacier loss at glaciers like Passu, which is shrinking and becoming increasingly unstable remains the main issue for local residents. Water sources are becoming increasingly unreliable which in some places means long standing water supplies drying up, in others the collapse of fast-formed glacial melt-water lakes which causes flooding, and damage from falling debris.

Quelccaya Ice Cap

Quelccaya is the largest tropical ice cap in the world, although some reports say it is now “formerly the world’s largest tropical ice cap.” In any event it covers a (shrinking) area the size of more than 9,000 football fields draping an entire high-elevation plateau in thick ice.  Detailed studies over the decades have revealed an alarming rate of glacier melt and scientists believe the ice cap will have gone completely by 2050.

Scărișoara Glacier Cave

An unusual underground glacier, found 1200 metres up in the Carpathian mountains and believed to have formed 10,000 years ago during a period of glacier growth when the region’s mountains were covered by snow and ice. It is the second largest known ‘glacier cave’ in the world and Europe’s biggest with an estimated volume of 75,000 cubic metres, a length of 720 metres and ice up to 20 metres thick. However scientists say the ice cave, like others around the world, is melting fast. An ice core sample revealed climate details from the past 10,000 years but started 150 years ago as ice containing data from the last 15 decades had melted away.

Skuta Glacier

Located beneath mount Skuta, this is one of two surviving glaciers in Slovenia and the most south-easterly in the Alps. Due to climate change it has shrunk by almost half over the six-decades from 1950, when it had an area of 2.8 hectares, to 2013, when it was down to 1.6 hectares.  The rate of melt has since accelerated.

Aneto

Formerly the largest glacier in the Pyrenees with ice several hundred metres thick, today, global warming has broken the ice sheet in to (currently) eleven glaciers that together total less than three hundred acres between them.  The Cregüella, Alba and Salenques glaciers are reported to be in a particularly poor state of health.  The melt rate is reported to be increasing rapidly by glaciologists studying the area, who believe the ice will all be gone by the mid-21st-century.

Fedchenko Glacier

The Fedchenko Glacier the longest glacier in the world outside of the polar regions, and is located r in the Pamir Mountains. It extends for 77 kilometres and covers over 700 square kilometres with a  maximum thickness of 1,000 metres. It begins 6,200m up and starts to melt down at 2,900 metres. It’s estimated volume is a huge 144 cubic kilometres of ice. The glacier has been studied for 150 years and actually grew between 1910-1913 moving forward about a kilometre. However it has been receding since 1928.  The glacier is reported be melting at a rate of 20 metres a year.

Mount Kilimanjaro

The highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain in the world, with its summit of 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) above sea level and at about 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) high from its plateau base. Because of its shrinking glaciers and disappearing ice fields, the mountain has been the subject of many scientific studies.  In the late 1880s, the summit of Kilimanjaro’s Kibo peak was completely covered by an ice cap about 20 square kilometres (7.7 sq mi) in extent with outlet glaciers cascading down the western and southern slopes. The glaciers retreated rapidly between 1912 and 1953, in response to a sudden shift in climate at the end of the 19th century that made them “drastically out of equilibrium”, and more slowly thereafter. Their continuing demise indicates they are still out of equilibrium in response to a constant change in climate over the past century.

Rwenzori’s Glaciers

The Rwenzori Mountains is a mountain range, with some peaks over 5,000 metres high, of eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). These mountains support glaciers and are one source of the Nile river. An ongoing concern is the impact of climate change on Rwenzori’s glaciers. In 1906, the Rwenzori had 43 named glaciers distributed over six mountains with a total area of 7.5 square kilometres (2.9 sq mi), about half the total glacier area in Africa. By 2005, less than half of these were still present, on only three mountains, with an area of about 1.5 square kilometres (0.58 sq mi). Recent scientific studies, such as those by Richard Taylor of University College London, have attributed this retreat to global climate change

Fortuna Glacier

As with Australia, the UK does not have glaciers on its main land mass. However it does on one island it controls, although the ownership of it is disputed with Argentina – South Georgia. A 2008 study of 36 of the island’s 160 or so glaciers found that two were still advancing, 28 were retreating and six were possibly stable or showed a complex, ambiguous response.

Humboldt

The last glacier in Venezuela is reported to be melting fast and likely to be gone completely in the next few years. Located on Venezuela’s second highest peak, at 4,940 metres above sea level, high in the Venezuelan Andes, the mountain is named after German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. The remaining glacier covers an area of less than a tenth of a square kilometre.  The area was once the world’s second highest lift-accessed ski area (behind Chacaltaya in Bolvia – see above), albeit a rather tenuous one with very limited skiing possible.