One of the glaciers of the Svalbard archipelago may completely melt in 30 years.

The Aldegonda glacier of the Svalbard Archipelago may completely melt in 30 years. This was announced on April 2 by Anton Terekhov, a researcher at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), Candidate of Geographical Sciences.

"The rate of glacier melting is very high. While maintaining the current dynamics of mass loss, our reference glacier Aldegonda in the vicinity of the village of Barentsburg, with an average thickness of about 80 m, may disappear completely in 30 years. Literally before our eyes," Terekhov said, his words are quoted on the institute's website.

AAI scientists have learned that over the past five years, the glaciers of the southwestern part of the archipelago have been losing a layer of almost 2.5 m of ice annually, and Svalbard is at the epicenter of modern climate change. According to experts, the last time such melting of the glaciers of the archipelago was observed about 4 thousand years ago, when the last mammoths had not yet died out.

The institution clarified that the retreat of the Svalbard glaciers will have an impact on the regime of rivers, the dynamics of permafrost and the ingress of nutrients and suspended solids into the waters of the bays, as well as change the volume of freshwater runoff.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)— the UN meteorological body, reported on March 18 that record levels of high temperatures in 2024 accelerated the melting of glaciers and sea ice. This has led to rising sea levels and brought the world closer to a key warming threshold. It clarifies that other factors could have influenced the global temperature increase last year, including changes in the solar cycle, a powerful volcanic eruption and a decrease in the amount of cooling aerosols.