Fastest glacier retreat on land

The fastest retreat of a glacier on land has been recorded at Triftgletscher (Trift Glacier) in the Swiss Alps, where scientists measured a retreat of 350 metres (1,148 feet) between the summers of 2003 and 2005, equating to an average of 175 metres (574 feet) per year.

The glacier had been retreating rapidly for a number of years, creating a large lake in front of the terminus that accelerated the retreat by the combined effect of iceberg calving (floating up and breaking off bits of the glacier terminus) and an increased supply of heat due to direct contact of the glacier with the lake, in addition to atmospheric warming which has seen nearly all of the glaciers in Switzerland retreat, similar to the vast majority of glaciers worldwide, which are currently contributing to sea level rise.

There are 274,531 mountain glaciers on Earth, outside of the vast ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. They cover an area of around 706,744 km² (272,875 sq mi) and, if they all melted, they would increase sea level by around 32 cm (1 ft). However, most of the Earth’s ice is stored within the Antarctic Ice Sheet (storing around 58 m/190 ft of sea level equivalent), with a further 7.4 m (24 ft) stored in the Greenland Ice Sheet.