ICE that took millennia to form on a glacier near the summit of Mount Everest has dramatically shrunk due to climate change in the last three decades, showed a new study.

The South Col glacier may have already lost about 55m of thickness in the last 25 years, according to research led by the University of Maine and published by Nature this week.

Carbon dating showed the top layer of ice is about 2,000 years old, suggesting that the glacier is thinning more than 80 times faster than the time it took to form, said the study.

South Col is “probably going to disappear within very few decades” at this point, lead scientist Paul Mayewski told National Geographic.

“It is quite a remarkable transition.”

The South Col glacier is about 7,900m above sea level and 1km below the peak of the highest mountain in the world.

Other researchers have shown that glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate in the Himalaya.

As formations shrink, hundreds of lakes have formed in the foothills of mountains that can burst and unleash floods in the Himalaya.

Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa, who has climbed Everest a record 25 times since 1994, said he has witnessed first-hand changes on the mountain.

“We now see rock exposed in areas where there used to be snow. Not just on Everest, other mountains are also losing their snow and ice. It is worrying.”

Himalayan glaciers are a critical water source for almost two billion people living in the mountains and river valleys below.

They feed 10 of the most important river systems in the world and help supply billions of people with energy and food.

The water-related impacts of climate change are already experienced daily by millions of people worldwide, according to United Nations climate scientists. – AFP, February 5, 2022.