Calderone glacier
The Calderone glacier (it: Ghiacciaio del Calderone) is the only glacier among Apennines mountain range, located in Gran Sasso d’Italia mountain group. It lies just beneath the Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennines.
With the disappearance of the Corral de la Veleta glacier (37° N) in 1913, which lay in Spain's Sierra Nevada, "Il Calderone" became Europe's southernmost known glacier (42°28′N, 13°33′E). If present deglaciation trends continue, the Calderone may soon share Corral de la Veleta's fate. The discovery of a number of small glaciers in the Prokletije in 2009 seemed to threaten Calderone's record; however, the Italian glacier is slightly farther south.[1][failed verification]
Historical surface of the glacier
In 1794, the Calderone had an estimated volume of over 4 million cubic metres; by 1916, the glacier’s volume had decreased to 3.3 million cubic metres, and by 1990, it had decreased to 360,931 cubic metres. In 1998 Italian glaciologists at a symposium in L'Aquila predicted that the Calderone would vanish within a few decades.[2]
Some glaciologists have predicted that the glacier will disappear by 2020. However, 2014 has been slightly positive for the glacier. By the end of August 2014, the volume of residual ice was larger than during the same period in 2013.
Surface and volume of the glacier | ||
Year | Surface m² | Volume m³ |
---|---|---|
1794 | 104.257 | 4.332.207 |
1884 | 90.886 | 3.382.166 |
1916 | 63.335 | 3.386.485 |
1934 | 59.713 | 2.461.529 |
1960 | 60.030 | 1.729.934 |
1990 | 52.586 | 360.931 |
2005 | 32.900 | --- |
2006 | 32.700 | --- |
2008 | 35.545 | --- |
References
- ^ Grunewald, K,; Scheithauer, J, (2010), "Europe's southernmost glaciers: response and adaptation to climate change" (PDF), Journal of Glaciology, 56 (195): 129–142
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: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Visconti, Guido; M. Beniston; Emilio D. Iannorelli; Diego Barba. Global Change and Protected Areas (Advances in Global Change Research). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 425–435. ISBN 0-7923-6918-1.
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