'We don't know how the story is going to end': Melting glaciers, climate change alarm scientists

Climate change is demonstrated most dramatically by the disappearance and dwindling of glaciers throughout the world.

Before it shrank and split into much-diminished glacierets, Italy's Calderone ice formation claimed to be the southernmost glacier in Europe.

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Following the melting of the Corral del Veleta in Spain in the early 20th century, it became Europe's southernmost glacier.

The Calderone glacier, which lies in the Gran Sasso d'Italia, an expanse in the Apennine Mountains, first split two decades ago.

However, due to climate change, global temperatures are rising at a faster rate than ever before, which is increasing the glacier's risk of melting away into the geological record books, a mere relic of the past.

According to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Glaciology, since its split twenty years ago, the glacier has been in a headlong retreat: its volume decreased by around 90 per cent between 1916 and 1990.

"This was the southernmost glacier in Europe and that's why it was an icon and a symbol, but now it is shrinking more and more," says glaciologist Massimo Frezzotti while talking to AFP.

According to Frezzotti, president of the Italian Glaciological Committee, the glacier could disappear completely within 10-20 years.

A period during which glaciers lose more mass than they gain known as the ablation season had effectively "disappeared" because the temperatures were too high.

"The duration of the ablation seasons became longer, the rainfall remained constant but there is a reduction in the snowfall and of course the mass balance of the glacier has shrunk more and more," he said.

The Calderone glacier in Italy has been the subject of research by Massimo Pecci, another member of the group for the past 25 years.

He says that "Since 2000 we have been witnessing a gradual reduction of the thickness, of the area and a further fragmentation into smaller glacierets,".

In the last century, human activity, mainly caused by the burning of fossil fuels, has contributed to global warming by 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.0 degrees Fahrenheit) over mid-19th century levels.The temperature has risen most dramatically over the last fifty years.

"We don't know yet how the story is going to end... let's hope it's not going to end," Pecci said.

(With inputs from agencies)