The retreat of Latin America's most iconic glacier is accelerating.

In southern Argentina, the glacier Perito Moreno Glacier, a symbol of stability in the face of global warming, has begun to regress and lose weight quickly, according to a new scientific report. Researchers from the Argentine Institute of Snow Science and international experts warn that this change, which began in 2018, has accelerated since 2022 and could become irreversible. With a loss of almost two square kilometers of surface in just seven yearsThe phenomenon threatens its historic connection to the Magellan Peninsula, which acted as a natural support. Today, scientists fear that this global icon of ice is in the process of collapse. unprecedented in modern times.

The glacier that resisted now gives way

For decades, Perito Moreno was an exception to the rule: while other glaciers retreated, it maintained a delicate balance between accumulation and thawingIts stability made it a natural symbol of Patagonia and attracted millions of visitors, fascinated by its spectacular ice breaks on Lake Argentino. But Since 2018, the balance has been broken.

According to the glaciologist Lucas RuizIn recent years the glacier has lost thickness at a rate of 8 meters per year, twice as much as between 2018 and 2022. The loss of mass especially affects the northern margin, on the deepest area of the lake, far from the tourist walkways. There, the ice has stopped settling on the lake floor and begins to float, an unequivocal sign of structural weakening.

Too big for this climate

“The size of Perito Moreno no longer corresponds to the current climate,” explains Ruiz.Can't stand the heat and the ingress of ice no longer compensates for the losses." In the summer of 2023-24, temperatures of up to 11,2 ° C, and the summer average has increased 1,2 °C in 30 years, enough to dramatically accelerate melting.

The imbalance is visible: the Breakups are now more frequent, louder and much biggerIn April, a guide witnessed a tower of ice the size of a 20-story building plummet into the lake.Only in the last four to six years we see icebergs of that size", confirms Ruiz.

Towards a point of no return

Satellite observations and high-frequency images taken since January by a European team confirm a significant decline in just 100 days“Describing change as irreversible is complex,” he says. Xabier Blanch Gorriz, an expert in glacial fractures. “But the data indicate a clear and accelerated negative trend".

The most worrying thing is the possible loss of contact with the Magallanes Peninsula, which until now functioned as a natural buttress, slowing the glacier's response to warming. If this anchorage is lost, Perito Moreno could collapse into a new equilibrium position deeper and narrower, “something that has never been seen before,” says Ruiz. That new configuration could be so unstable that No one can predict how long it would last.

The last witness also falls

Perito Moreno is the the only large Patagonian glacier that had not shown sustained retreat. Your neighbors, Upsala and Viedma, have lost glacial mass at alarming rates over the past two decades. With the start of their decline, the Perito Moreno is no longer an exception and It joins the global trend of accelerated disappearance of ice.

This transformation is more than a loss of tourism or landscape: it is a geophysical symptom of climate collapse“We are digging the grave of the world's glaciers,” warns Ruiz. Only an unlikely succession of cool summers and wet winters could slow down the process, but climate models indicate otherwise: more heat, less ice.

The end of a symbol?

The setback of Perito Moreno not only represents an alert for science, but also a symbolic blow: If even this glacier melts, What hope is left for the rest? Its stability was a respite in a warming world. Now, its collapse is a physical warning of what is at stake.

Instead of witnessing a breakup as a tourist spectacle, today we observe a process degradative and irreversible, where the ice no longer recomposes, it only yields. The question is not whether the glacier will change, but how much longer can he resist? before reaching that tipping point from which there will be no turning backPerito Moreno, declared a World Heritage Site in 1981, could be living out its final decades as we know it.