What question did this study set out to answer?

To investigate the vanishment of very small glacierets in the Northern and Central Andes of Chile and assess their response to climate change.

May 16, 2026Open Access

Vanishment of very small glacierets throughout the Northern and Central Andes of Chile

Key Points

To investigate the vanishment of very small glacierets in the Northern and Central Andes of Chile and assess their response to climate change.
Analyzed 321 very small glacierets, including 77 with no visible surface ice and 244 presumed to have vanished.
Categorized glacierets based on their size and the underlying substrate (bedrock or regolith).
77 glacierets showed no visible surface ice while resting on bedrock or water.
244 additional glacierets presumed to vanish were identified, resting on regolith.

Abstract

Small glaciers (<0.5 km 2 ), glacierets (<0.25 km 2 ), and, in particular, very small glacierets (<0.01 km 2 ), despite being numerous in mountain environments, are underrepresented in scientific inquiry when assessing their response to climate change.We present new insights into the vanishment (no visible surface ice whilst underlain by bedrock or water) of 77 very small glacierets distributed in the Northern and Central Andes of Chile.We also analyse the presumable vanishment (no visible surface ice whilst underlain by regolith) of 244 additional very small glacierets, comprising a total dataset of 321 very small glacierets within the study

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