Swiss glaciers have recorded their worst melt rate since records began more than a century ago, losing 6% of their remaining volume this year or nearly double the previous record of 2003.
The monitoring body GLAMOS said the melt had been so extreme this year that bare rock that had remained buried for millenia re-emerged at one site, while bodies and even a plane lost elsewhere in the Alps decades ago were recovered.
Scientists across the Alps, including Huss, have had to do emergency repair work at dozens of sites across the Alps as melting ice risked dislodging measuring poles and disrupting data collection.
The heavy losses this year, which amounted to about 3 cubic kilometee of ice, are said to be the result of exceptionally low winter snowfall combined with back-to-back summer heatwaves.