A new study has confirmed that El Niño events are drastically accelerating ice loss on the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru. Utilizing NASA’s Landsat satellite data, researchers found a 58% reduction in snow-covered areas since 1985, stressing the urgent need for climate action.
Researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking study linking El Niño to significant ice loss on the Quelccaya Ice Cap (QIC) in the Peruvian Andes, raising alarm over the future of high-mountain water resources and global climate patterns.
El Niño, a climate phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years, warms ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific, affecting weather worldwide. The study, led by Kara Lamantia from The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Research Climate Center, reveals that El Niño has drastically reduced the QIC’s snow-covered area over the past four decades.
“Our research gives us a look into a glacier’s health,” Lamantia said in a news release. “The Quelccaya glacier becomes greatly out of equilibrium during these short-term climate anomalies.”
Published in The Cryosphere journal, the study is the first to automate the detection of snow-covered areas on the QIC. Using NASA Landsat satellite images and a newly developed algorithm that processes near-infrared imagery, the researchers confirmed that El Niño significantly accelerates ice loss. From 1985 to 2022, the QIC lost 58% of its snow cover and 37% of its total area.
“By creating a threshold for the different reflectance between snow and ice cover, we can gather a consistent and much more reliable measurement,” Lamantia added.
El Niño induces warmer and drier conditions in southern Peru, depleting snow cover during the typically wet season. As a result, the glacier’s snow cover continues to decline without sufficient snowfall to replenish it. This trend has dire implications, especially as climate change is expected to intensify and prolong El Niño events.
“The ice cap as a whole is on a very consistent linear decline from anthropogenic warming,” added Lamantia. “It may not matter how strong future La Niñas are, as the freezing line continues to rise and snow cover shrinks, Quelccaya will likely continue to decline.”
The potential disappearance of the QIC by 2080 could mirror the fate of Kilimanjaro’s glaciers, severely impacting local communities reliant on glacial meltwater. The study highlights the urgent need for innovative water conservation strategies in face of escalating climate change.
“The general consensus is we can expect that the likely increased intensity and duration of El Niños will cause more complications for the QIC,” said Lamantia. “We need to start being clever about how we use and conserve our water resources.”
The study’s co-authors include Lonnie Thompson and Bryan Mark from Ohio State and Laura J. Larocca from Arizona State University.