Replacing monitored glaciers undergoing extinction: a new measurement series on La Mare Glacier (Ortles-Cevedale, Italy)

Abstract

Glacier mass balance is a key variable for the monitoring strategies of the Earth climate system, but the continuation of long-term observations is now endangered by the impending extinction of several monitored glaciers. It is therefore advisable to start new observations on neighbouring glaciers that are more likely to survive into the next few decades. These glaciers will be located at higher altitude, have larger elevation range, thus preserving an accumulation area and have good spatial representativeness. Glaciers with these characteristics may pose some problems and are more demanding for mass-balance measurements and calculations, due to their size and presence of remote and inaccessible areas, further complicated by the complex morphology and high-lateral gradients of mass balance. I present the new mass-balance series for La Mare Glacier, started in 2003 to replace the long-term monitored and rapidly vanishing Careser Glacier in the Ortles-Cevedale Group (Eastern Italian Alps). Direct glaciological mass-balance observations have been complemented by measurements with the hydrological method and, as recommended by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, validated using the geodetic method. The collected data are useful for testing and optimising two techniques proposed in the literature for extrapolating measurements to inaccessible areas.

Keywords

• glacier mass balance
• vanishing glaciers