Scientists: Austria's glaciers could melt completely by 2070

Glaciers in Austria are retreating by more than 20 metres per year on average and could melt completely within the next 46 years.

This conclusion was reached by the Glacier Measurement Service of the Austrian Alpine Club.

None of the 90 glaciers in the republic are capable of supporting their own mass, the service's director, Andreas Keller-Birklebauer, told the Austrian Press Agency. "Austrian glaciers only exist thanks to ice reserves accumulated in the past," said the service's director, Andreas Keller-Birklebauer.

The expert added that due to the melting, cracks appear on the glaciers, making it dangerous for people to be on them.

The Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences had previously announced that most of the Earth's glaciers have shrunk significantly over the past decades. In particular, the area of ​​glaciers in the northern part of the Srednyi mountain range and on the Kronotsky Peninsula in Kamchatka has decreased by 35.6% since 1950.