The Echaurren Norte Glacier mass balance time series is the longest in the Southern Hemisphere, thus it is -together with the Zongo Glacier in Bolivia-a reference glacier by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS).The Echaurren Norte Glacier constitutes a reference case of glacier degradation and transition in the Central Andes of Chile, exemplifying the full spectrum of contemporary glacier evolution processes: frontal retreat, surface thinning, progressive debris cover and fragmentation.An analysis of satellite imagery from 1955 to 2023 reveals a ~65% reduction in glacier area, accompanied by an expansion of supraglacial debris.Today, no clean ice is visible at the surface, and the glacier persists as three fully debris-covered units with a combined area of only 0.18 km.These transformations indicate a shift from an active mountain glacier toward a debris-covered glacieret, characterized by negligible ice flow
McPhee et al. (2026) studied this question.