The findings are clear: the Aletsch Glacier suffered enormous melting in 2024. Measurements taken by Matthias Huss’s team from GLAMOS, the Swiss glaciological survey network, show a loss of 4.6 meters of ice thickness during the summer of 2024. The largest glacier in the Alps has just experienced three years of record melting. At this rate, scientists have little hope for the glacier by the end of the century.
The photos are striking. Every summer, Matthias Huss travels to Konkordiaplatz, where the large glaciers south of the Jungfrau converge to form a single glacier, the Aletsch Glacier. In a photo published on September 15, the Swiss scientist holds a pole that illustrates the height of the annual ice loss: in 2024, the pole is 4.6 meters high. That is the thickness of ice that has disappeared in one year.
This analysis is the result of the annual reports of