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 9 Feb 2018
Featured on GeoLog, the official blog of the European Geosciences Union
Categories
Location
- Europe (3484)
- Southern Europe (1511)
- Italy (381)
- 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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