Question: Which of the following statements is incorrect regarding the recent study report about Switzerland’s glaciers?
(a) According to the study glaciers in Switzerland have lost a tenth of their volume in the past five years alone.
(b) The Cryospheric Commission at the Swiss Academy of Sciences has published this annual study on the state of the glaciers in Switzerland.
(c) In September 2019 a funeral march was undertaken up by the natives of Switzerland to mark the disappearance of the Meola glacier.
(d) Measurements under this study on 20 Swiss glaciers have shown that melt rates this year (2019) have reached record levels.
Answer: (c)
Related facts:
- On October 15, 2019;a study has been published about the state of Switzerland’s glaciers.
- The Cryospheric Commission at the Swiss Academy of Sciences has published this annual study on the state of the glaciers in Switzerland.
- According to the study glaciers in Switzerland have lost a tenth of their volume in the past five years alone.
- It was a melting rate that unmatched during observations stretching back more than a century.
- Measurements under this study on 20 Swiss glaciers have shown that melt rates this year (2019) have reached record levels.
- It has found that intense heat waves over the summer in Switzerland had dashed hopes that an exceptionally snow-filled winter would limit the glacier melt this year.
- The commission said that in April and May, snow cover on the glaciers was between 20 and 40% higher than usual, with depths of up to six metres measured in some places as late as June.
- In a comparative study it has been noted that during two weeks of intense heat at the end of June and again in late July, the volume of snow and ice melting on Swiss glaciers was equivalent to the country’s total annual consumption of drinking water.
- The result, it said, was that the thick snow layer quickly disappeared and the strong melt continued until early September.
- Researchers informed that over the past 12 months, around two percent of Switzerland’s total glacier volume has been lost.
- The commission said that the overall rate of loss over the past five years “exceeds 10%.”
- There is a deep concern in Switzerland about melting of glaciers as in September 2019 a funeral march was undertaken up a steep mountainside to mark the disappearance of the Pizol glacier.
- Pizol glacier was one of more than 500 glaciers to vanish from the Swiss Alps since the turn of the 20th century.
- A recent study by glaciologists at the ETH technical university in Zurich indicated that more than 90% of the some 4,000 glaciers dotted throughout the Alps could disappear by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present pace.
The Longest and Largest Glacier in Switzerland:
- The Great Aletsch Glacier is the longest and largest glacier in Switzerland.
- This glacier has a length of about 22.47 km and a volume of 15.4 cubic km.
- The glacier encompasses an area of 81.7 square km in the Bernese Alps in Valais.
- The Great Aletsch is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Links:-
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/swiss-glaciers-shrink-10-in-five-years-study/article29689416.ece
https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/swiss-glaciers-shrink-10-percent-five-years-study-doc-1lf4r11
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-major-glaciers-in-switzerland.html