Zermatt's Glaciers and Climate Change
Glaciers have lost 2 miles in length and 200 feet
in thickness in 150 years
Purpose
This website focuses on Zermatt's major glaciers and their ongoing retreat caused by climate change. For each major glacier, results of scientific studies of retreat are summarized, retreat features are explained, and photographs show the views you can see from ski lift stations and hiking trails. Learn about and see for yourself the evidence from Zermatt's glaciers of climate change, including global warming that we are experiencing today.
The iconic shape of the Matterhorn and the many surrounding peaks and valleys have all been shaped by the ice sheets that periodically covered most of Europe over the past 2.6 million years. The last of these ice sheets decayed about 18,000 years ago. Around 10,000 years ago a warmer interglacial period began, and glaciers diminished to about what we see today, including those in the Zermatt area.
