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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 6d

Like pulling the plug of a bathtub: an incredible mass of #glacier ice disappearing at Griesgletscher (🇨🇭/🇮🇹) in one century.
It felt emotional to visit the exact same spot @swisstopo cartographers chose in 1919. The view was so different.
Simply unbelievable!!
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 7d

Remember the catastrophic rock-ice avalanche of Blatten 🇨🇭 this May?
This incredible image comparison shows like nothing else the darkening of mountain peaks.
And along with the disappearance of snow, ice and permafrost, new hazards come along
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 16d

110 years ago, glaciologists climbed up to Claridenfirn 🇨🇭 to start the longest measurements of #glacier mass balance worldwide.
Yesterday morning, the scene looked so different! Still beautiful, but the ice got slim... Almost sentimental to see another crazy year up there

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 22d

Some more impressions from our GLAMOS @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social measurement campaign today. The landscape is simply awesome but the change from year to year is hard to take.

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 22d

One more year: Ice loss at Konkordiaplatz on Aletsch #Glacier is just... wow 😲 Minus 4.6 metres of ice.
Will there ever be a call:
"Make Aletsch Great Again"?
It would be about time

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 24d

We discontinued mass balance measurements on the small St. Annafirn in 2023 as the #glacier was on the verge of disappearing and rockfall hazard became too high.
A good decision: a massive landslide occurred this Sunday covering the entire glacier 👇
www.ur.ch/mmdirektione....

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 25d

This #glacier encountered during our late-summer fieldwork looks like a wounded animal.
Deep scars in its surface are indicative of the processes of internal decay. This is widespread now in the Alps.
A sad sight for a glaciologist...

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Sep 5

It's the time of the year GLAMOS measurements on around 20 Swiss #glaciers start. We've been on Rhone, Allalin, Corvatsch, ... these days.
Not all as shiny white as here! Major losses also in 2025. Stay posted for the press release via @scnat.ch on 1 Oct
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Aug 19

Interestingly, a tiny piece of dead ice of the former Pizolgletscher still withstands the warming, covered by rock debris and not recognisable as ice anymore.
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Aug 19

These small vanishing glaciers may not appear to be relevant (water, sea level rise) but they represent, or represented, an essential element of the alpine landscape with important links to local tourism and slope instabilities.

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Aug 19

Did you know that already more than 1000 glaciers have disappeared in Switzerland over the last 50 years as a consequence of human-caused climate change?

One of those is Pizolgletscher which I visited today. Always a saddening yet impressive sight...

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Aug 12

Some impressions from the bottom of the now-empty Lac de Faverges

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Aug 12

A hole in the #glacier ice... Nature is just incredible.
We were at Glacier de la Plaine Morte today for GLAMOS measurements. Bad situation, as expected. Major mass loss has already occurred and melting continues at crazy rates. Wow, let's see where this is ending...

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Aug 11

Getting used to this image: #glaciers almost completely naked - unprotected by the white snow - in August...
While July was good for glaciers after record-melt in June, the new heat wave again results in major ice loss
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 11

Great Aletsch #Glacier - what a beauty 😍
Melting at the glacier terminus is incredible though this year as reported by measurements by @pronaturabl.bsky.social
Already over 7️⃣ meters of ice loss since Oct 2024, with considerable melt also in winter.

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 9

The cooling of the last two days and some fresh snow above 2500 masl only is a short and intermittent relief.

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 9

This is the collapsing terminus of Rhone #glacier yesterday - retreating out of its proglacial lake. Impressive changes going on during the heat wave!
We measured almost 3 meters of ice melting over the last 4 weeks... This is 10 cm of ice layer removed every single day!!

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 5

A 26-day period of exceptionally high temperatures will end tomorrow, 4 degrees above normal.
Swiss #glaciers have lost an enormous amount of water during this time: it is equivalent to 🇨🇭's total annual drinking water use, and more than twice the average of the last years...

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 4

Results are based on intermediate observations on 12 Swiss glaciers acquired in the frame of GLAMOS combined with modelling.
Little winter snow and the 2nd warmest June have led to this situation.
Final results on glacier loss 2025 to be published on 1 Oct
@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 4

The #Glacier Loss Day is reached in Switzerland!
From now on all melt that occurs on glaciers until October is unsustainable. This tipping point has only been reached so early in the record-shattering year 2022.
Expect big ice loss due to the prolonged melt season and feedback effects

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jul 2

Some cooling within the #glacier ice - this is what is urgently needed these days...
On Jungfraujoch, there has been no warmer June since at least 90 years than in 2025! @meteoschweiz.ch
Glaciers are in a deplorable state - as if they even need more attention in their UN International Year...

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Reposted by Matthias Huss

VAW Glaciology @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social · Jul 1

🚨 New paper alert! Glaciers in Western Canada, Switzerland & the conterminous US lost twice as much ice from 2021–2024 compared to the previous decade. Heatwaves + dust & wildfire impurities drove extreme melt.
Co-authored by #VAW member @matthias-huss.bsky.social ❄️🌍

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jun 30

The Glacier Loss Day occurred by mid-August in 2010-2020, and should be in October to permit a balance with climate. Heavy times!
Glaciers throughout Switzerland are equally affected. Little winter snow, early heat.
Based on #GLAMOS @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social measurements combined with modelling

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jun 30

In about 4 days from now, we are going to hit the #Glacier Loss Day in Switzerland! All melting from this point onwards till next winter is unsustainable, i.e. is long-term mass loss.
This is extremely early in the season! And just a bit behind the record-shattering year 2022...

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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · Jun 29

Snow situation on Konkordiaplatz, Great Aletsch #Glacier, by 29 June 2019-2025.
Exchanging white snow with dark bare ice. This is really bad! And there's still up to 100 days to go in the melt season. Will we reach the all-time record of 2022?
I hope not...!
@jungfraualetsch.bsky.social

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