REPORT – On the second largest glacier in the French Alps, scientists from Grenoble have observed an acceleration of summer melting.
Argentiere Glacier
On the Argentière glacier (Haute-Savoie), the temperature has not yet exceeded zero degrees, at the start of the morning of October. A layer of fresh snow, which has fallen in recent days, covers the glacier. The mountainous circus in which it originates, at 3500 meters above sea level, is bristling with granite peaks, as magnificent as they are inhospitable. It is here, in the heart of the Mont-Blanc massif, that Christian Vincent and Olivier Gagliardini, glaciologists at the Institute of Environmental Geosciences (IGE) in Grenoble, begin their surveys, the aim of which is to calculate the summer ice melt.
About forty wooden stakes, which serve as beacons, are distributed on specific points of the glacier. Planted in September, they allow scientists to calculate the winter snow accumulation and will then be measured each month, until the beginning of October.
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All of this data will allow them to calculate the mass balance of the glacier…
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