Pasterze faces record retreat as glacier link may break

Austria’s Pasterze glacier could retreat by more than its record 203 metres this summer, ORF reported. Scientists from the University of Graz measured the glacier this week on behalf of the Austrian Alpine Club and recorded exceptionally high ice losses.

Measurements using probes drilled into the ice and drones documenting the retreat showed unusually large sinking levels on the glacier surface and significant changes in its length, said Gerhard Lieb, one of the heads of the glacier measurement service.

A lake measuring about 40 to 50 hectares and almost 50 metres deep now occupies the area where an ice stream once flowed down the valley. Another lake has formed below the Hufeisenbruch.

Scientists are documenting the lakes to assess their size and surroundings, including whether loose sediments could begin to slide and create a hazard, said Michael Avian of GeoSphere Austria.

The Pasterze is currently estimated to be about seven kilometres long. However, only an ice band around 70 metres wide still connects it to the upper Pasterzenboden, the glacier’s accumulation area.

If melting continues at the current rate, that connection could disappear in 2027 or 2028, Lieb said. The Pasterze would then become a stagnant dead-ice glacier. The Gepatschferner in Tyrol’s Ötztal Alps would statistically become Austria’s largest glacier.

The full analysis of the measurements will be completed in the coming weeks. The Alpine Club’s glacier report is due to be published next spring.