Revisiting the Volumes of the Little-Known Patagonian Ice Caps: New Study Reveals Vulnerability to Climate Change

A recent study published in the journal ‘Communications Earth & Environment’ by the Nature group re-evaluated the volume of the Patagonian ice fields using remote sensing and satellite imagery. These ice caps, located in Argentina and Chile, are the largest in the southern hemisphere after Antarctica, covering about 16,000 square kilometers. Despite their vast size, these ice caps are relatively unknown.

Led by Johannes Furst from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, an international research group estimated that the Patagonian ice caps hold 5,351 cubic kilometers of ice, with some glaciers reaching thicknesses of 1,400 meters. The study revealed that these glaciers are highly vulnerable to climate change, containing 40 times more ice than all the glaciers in the European Alps.

The retreat of the glacial fronts is influenced by the depth of the lake basins they flow into, with faster retreat in deeper basins. The speed of the Patagonian glaciers exceeding that of European Alps glaciers results in an annual loss of one meter of ice. This loss not only impacts