France Alps record glacier loss

A record-breaking retreat has been recorded in the San Sorlano Glacier in the French Alps, where it lost 30 meters of its thickness over the course of a year, with its front retreating by 5.4 meters between August 2025 and August 2026. Since 1900, the glacier has lost more than 80 meters of its thickness, leaving approximately only 60 meters remaining, with an additional melt of about 140 centimeters during certain periods. Data indicate that 2026 is experiencing melt levels comparable to those in 2022, and the region's glaciers have lost about 20% of their volume between 2022 and 2026, equivalent to one-fifth of the ice mass in just five years. Experts anticipate that most glaciers in the Alps will disappear by 2100, though some very high-altitude areas may remain. This phenomenon raises concerns about the potential disappearance of the San Sorlano Glacier before 2050, along with the risks of forming floating lakes at the foot of retreating glaciers and exposing regions to floods, sudden water, silt, and debris flows. Science has been monitoring the San Sorlano River for over a century, and data show that the acceleration of glacier melt began after 1985 and became more pronounced after 2002, losing about two meters of water annually—an increasingly alarming sign of climate change impacts on the region’s glaciers.

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