A new glacier inventory of the French Alps produced by Marie Gardent and colleagues at the University of Savoie has found that 100 square kilometers of glacier area has been lost between the early 1970s and today—a 26 percent loss. Using Landsat data together with historical aerial photography and maps, Gardent was able to evaluate and compare historic and contemporary glacier surface area. Her research was presented last week at the AGU meeting in San Francisco, CA.
For Further Information:
+ French Alpine glaciers in retreat, BBC News [external link]