Underground cryosphere
by Renato R. Colucci, Dept. of Earth System Sciences and Environmental Technology. CNR-ISMAR, Trieste, Italy
High altitude karstic environments often preserve permanent ice deposits within caves, representing the lesser-known portion of the cryosphere. Since their main characteristics is to have ground-ice older than 2 years, many authors are prone to consider ice-caves as sporadic permafrost phenomena.
Despite being not so widespread and easily reachable as mountain glaciers and ice caps, ice-caves preserve several information about past environmental changes and paleoclimatic evolution. Global warming is rapidly destroying such important archives as here in the "Vasto ice-cave", southeastern Alps in the Canin-Kanin massif (2587 m a.s.l.) during summer 2017, one of the hottest ever in the Alps.
Taken on 20
October
2017
Submitted on 09 February 2018
Featured on GeoLog, the official blog of the European Geosciences Union
Categories
Location
- Europe (3312)
- Southern Europe (1415)
- Italy (350)
- Exact location (13.4350 E, 46.3550 N)
Tags
alps, karst, permafrost, ice cave, cryosphere
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Camera:
Canon EOS 7D
Software: Photoshop
Licence
Credit: Renato R. Colucci (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)
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