The highest peak of the Alps has become almost a meter lower. As reported on Wednesday, September 29, AFP, this is the conclusion reached by surveyors from Haute Savoy during their next expedition to the top of the mountain. Now the height of Mont Blanc is 4,807.81 meters.
Scientists urged not to make “hasty conclusions” about the “decline” of the mountain under the influence of climate change. Mont Blanc measurements have been carried out since the end of the 19th century. For the past twenty years, every two years, a team of expert surveyors have climbed to the top of the mountain to take measurements.
The last time the official data on the height of the mountain was corrected was in 2017. Then its height was 4,808.72 meters. The highest altitude of Mont Blanc was recorded in 2007 – 4,810.9 meters. The figures indicate a decrease in the height of the summit by an average of 13 cm per year since 2001, writes AFP.
In fact, the numbers change from time to time, the scientists explain, since the summit is covered with a constant layer of snow, which, like a huge snowdrift, changes depending on the strength of the wind and the amount of precipitation. The rocky summit ends at an altitude of 4792 meters.
The height of the summit also changes with the seasons. In winter, the wind is stronger, it smoothes out the snow more than in summer. Thus, Mont Blanc is higher at the end of summer than at the end of winter.
“Now it's up to climatologists, glaciologists and other scientists who must use all the data collected and put forward all hypotheses to explain this phenomenon,” said one of the expedition members Denis Borel.
