Dec.
11, 2013 — Less than 20
miles from the site where melting ice exposed the 5,000-year-old body of Ötzi
the Iceman, scientists have discovered new and compelling evidence that the
Italian Alps are warming at an unprecedented rate.
This evidence
comes from a dried out leaf from a larch tree that grew several thousand years
ago. A six-nation team of glaciologists led by The Ohio State University
drilled a set of ice cores from Mt. Ortles in Northern Italy. The Alto
dell’Ortles glacier did not show signs of melting for thousands of year. But
not it is shifting from a below freezing temperature to one where the upper
layers are at the melting point. The current atmosphere is warming outside of
the normal range for millennia. The scientists say that this is consistent with
the melting of glaciers at high elevations.
When they
first started drilling in 2011, the first 100 feet of the glacier was like
compacted snow that had partly melted. Below that, it was all solid frozen ice.
This means that snow has been accumulating for years and has not melted until
in the last 30 years, “which is when each year's new deposit of snow began
melting.” They know that the ice has remained unchanged because of the larch
tree that was mentioned earlier. It was wedged into the ice 240 feet beneath
the surface and surrounded by solid ice.
"The leaf
supports the idea that prehistoric ice is still present at the highest
elevations of the region." The leaf is said to be around 2,600 years old.
The interest
of the researchers is why the temperatures in the Alps are increasing at twice
the rate of the whole earth. Alto dell’Ortles is located in the heart of
Europe. It is one of the most populated areas of the world. They want to see if
environmental changes can change climatic changes and Ortles gives them the
opportunity to find that out.
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