https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-a-tropical-glacier
As Jorge Luis Ceballos scales the steep mountain slope, the memories of the past 15 years wash over him. His shoes crunch on frigid gray rock. Only a few years before, it was covered in the ice of Nevado Santa Isabel, one of Colombia’s few remaining “tropical glaciers.” But he’s watched it disappear before his eyes, leaving behind only dates, spray-painted in red on nearby rocks—1960, 1970, 2003, 2006, 2013, 2017—each farther up the mountain than the one before. According to the latest research, in 30 years or less, all that will be left of Colombia’s glaciers will be those numbers.
“This is a glacier that is perishing,” Ceballos, 56, says, his backpack full of heavy scientific gear. The thin scientist comes across a lingering patch of wet, crackling ice and lets his hiking pole sink into it. “It’s dying.”
Colombian glaciologist Jorge L. Ceballos and assistant Andres Cruz Mendoza climb the highest peak of the Santa Isabel glacier.The very existence of tropical glaciers—rivers of ice near the equator—seems to defy logic: flukes of weather, nature, and topography. These formations survive in the tropics because of both elevation, high in the mountains, and connections with lower ecosystems—in this case Andean forest and alpine grassland called páramo that keep them fed with precipitation.
Only three zones of the world have such glaciers: the Andes (Peru has the most tropical glaciers by far), scattered mountains in East Africa, and parts of island Southeast Asia. Existing in such a precarious balance, it’s little surprise that these ice islands in the sky are disappearing rapidly.
“They are truly at the front line of climate change,” says French glaciologist and science television host Heidi Sevestre. “These are not glaciers that are going to disappear in 100, 200 years, these are glaciers that are going to disappear in the next few years.”
“This is a glacier that is perishing,” Ceballos, 56, says, his backpack full of heavy scientific gear. The thin scientist comes across a lingering patch of wet, crackling ice and lets his hiking pole sink into it. “It’s dying.”
Colombian glaciologist Jorge L. Ceballos and assistant Andres Cruz Mendoza climb the highest peak of the Santa Isabel glacier.The very existence of tropical glaciers—rivers of ice near the equator—seems to defy logic: flukes of weather, nature, and topography. These formations survive in the tropics because of both elevation, high in the mountains, and connections with lower ecosystems—in this case Andean forest and alpine grassland called páramo that keep them fed with precipitation.
Only three zones of the world have such glaciers: the Andes (Peru has the most tropical glaciers by far), scattered mountains in East Africa, and parts of island Southeast Asia. Existing in such a precarious balance, it’s little surprise that these ice islands in the sky are disappearing rapidly.
“They are truly at the front line of climate change,” says French glaciologist and science television host Heidi Sevestre. “These are not glaciers that are going to disappear in 100, 200 years, these are glaciers that are going to disappear in the next few years.”