News

Lake Discovered High in the French Alps is a “Truly Alarming” Sign of Climate Change

Posted

4 years ago

(

Jul 28, 2019 03:10pm EDT

)

Justine Chen

Flip

Send

React

A A A

The lake wasn’t even there ten days before its discovery.
The water was formed above the snow line in the Alps
Mestre said that there shouldn’t be liquid water in the said altitude.

A beautiful lake has just been discovered up in the French Alps, but it’s not something to celebrate about. In fact, it’s sudden presence is “truly alarming,” according to scientists.

Mountaineer Bryan Mestre saw the lake while he was climbing in the Mont Blanc range. The lake was located at 11,100 feet or 3,400 meters. Ten days before its discovery, the lake wasn’t even there.

So experts concluded that the body of water was formed from glacial snow that melted during the intense heatwave that bore down on Europe on the last weeks of June.

Mestre posted the picture of his discovery on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

Time to sound the alarm… The problem here? These two pictures were taken only 10 days apart… It was taken earlier on June 28th, the second one was shared by Paul Todhunter. Only 10 days of extreme heat were enough to collapse, melt and form a lake at the base of the Dent du Géant and the Aiguilles Marbrées That I know, this is the first time anything like that as ever happened. Southern Europe and the Alps have been struck by a massive heatwave with temperature ranging from 40 to 50 degrees, the below 0 freezing altitude was as high as 4,700m (15,400ft) and during the day temperatures as high as 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) were felt on top of Mont Blanc 4,810m (15,780ft)… This is truly alarming glaciers all over the world are melting at an exponential speed… My interview with @mblivetv can be found here! https://montblanclive.com/radiomontblanc/article/massif-du-mont-blanc-un-petit-lac-se-forme-a-plus-de-3000-m-daltitude-48453 #climbing #climber #climb #frenchalps #savoie #savoiemontblanc #hautesavoie #outdoors #globalwarming #mountaineering #mountains #mountain #montagne #montaña #montagna #montanhismo #mountaineer #alpinist #alpinism #alpinisme #alpinismo #alpi #alps #environment #savetheplanet #climatechange #montblanc @patagonia @beal.official @millet_mountain @blueiceclimbing

A post shared by Bryan Mestre (@bryanthealpinist) on Jun 30, 2019 at 3:10am PDT

For years now, scientists have warned that heatwaves will hit more frequently in Europe, as a result of weather pattern shifts that are part of global warming. This is the first time that Metre has seen something like this.

An intense record-breaking heatwave is now scorching Europe.

He was surprised to find the lake, he told in an interview with IFLScience, because of its location. The lake was at at 3,400-3,500 meter, which is above the snow line in the Alps, which is 2500–2800 meters up.

The snow line is the boundary between snow-free surface and snow-covered surface on the mountains.

Mestre explained:
“You’re supposed to find ice and snow at this altitude, not liquid water. Most of the time when we stay for a day at this altitude, the water in our water bottles starts freezing.”

He added that he’s been up there on the Alps many times already, in June, July, and August. During those times he has never seen liquid in that area. He emphasized that he’s been up there not just on the Mt. Blanc massif, but also dozens of mountains around the Alps.

Back in 2015, glaciologist Ludovic Ravanel saw a lake on the mountain. The lake then was much smaller. He warned that the lake was formed due to climate change.