Glaciers of Ecuadorian summits give up due to climate change

Bolivar Caceres is in charge of Glaciers Ecuador Program, which runs the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (Inamhi) since 1994 to verify receding of icecaps in the seven summits with glaciers that Ecuador has, one of the impacts of climate change.

Caceres explains that according to the latest data processed after the rise that they made to the ​​Antisana volcano, of 5,753 meters high, in February, in the last two decades, only the icecap from one of the glaciers studied, called the 15, it reduced about 210 meters long.

At the same time it has been lost an average of 610 millimeters of water equivalent, which has implied a thinning of the icecap of about 30 meters thick of ice that has melted.

The study of tropical glaciers is crucial because these summits are regulatory of the basins of high mountain and moorland ecosystem.

According to the analyzed backward trend, the glaciers that would disappear are those covering the peaks of Carihuairazo and Los Ilinizas. While the icecap from Cotopaxi, more difficult to analyze, fell from 19.2 km ² in 1976 to 11,8 km ² in 2006, according to the latest calculation made.