Mont Blanc shrinks by over 2 metres

• Western Europe’s highest peak, Mont Blanc, has lost 2.22-metre (7.28-foot) in height over the past two years, French researchers said.

• A team of geographical experts who perform the measurements every two years said that the mountain was now 4,805.59 metres (15,766.37 ft) high, lower than their last measurement of 4,807.81 metres (15,773.65 ft) in September 2021.

• Mont Blanc’s highest recorded summit was in 2007, at 4,810.90 metres.

• Mont Blanc is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end.

• Its name means “white mountain” in French.

• The experts said it is now up to climatologists, glaciologists and other scientists to look at the data collected and put forward all the theories to explain this phenomenon.

• The measurements are done on a live peak. In view of climate change, monitoring the changes will allow to better understand the impacts.

• As alarm grows worldwide over melting glaciers, the official height of Mont Blanc has been on a downward slide for over a decade. 

• Switzerland’s glaciers suffered their second worst melt rate this year after record 2022 losses, shrinking their overall volume by 10 per cent over the last two years.

• Faster melting has been observed in Alpine glaciers as a result of climate change.

• European glaciers — many at lower altitude than elsewhere on the globe — are especially vulnerable to global warming.

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