Researchers from Boston College have recently proven that glaciers in the Andes have shrunk to beyond prehistoric levels, with rocks exposed that haven’t seen the light in over 11,700 years.

In a report recently published in the journal Science, the researchers explain just how alarming this discovery is for our planet, with rock samples taken from four glaciers proving just how rapid the current rate of glacial retreat is.

Jeremy Shakun – Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Scientists at Boston College and co-author of the report – explained the implications of the team’s shocking findings in a statement:

“We have pretty strong evidence that these glaciers are smaller now than they have been any time in the past 11,000 years. Given that modern glacier retreat is mostly due to rising temperatures – as opposed to less snowfall, or changes in cloud cover – our findings suggest the tropics have already warmed outside their Holocene range and into the Anthropocene.”

The research teams were able to reach this conclusion through their discovery of two rare isotopes in the rocks they examined, beryllium-10 and carbon-14.

These isotopes are only present in a rock when they have been exposed to cosmic radiation from outer space.

From this information, the team were able to date the rock that had only recently been exposed once more, as a result of melting ice on their surface, as Shakun and PhD student Andrew Gorin explain further:

“By measuring the concentrations of these isotopes in the recently exposed bedrock we can determine how much time in the past the bedrock was exposed, which tells us how often the glaciers were smaller than today – kind of like how a sunburn can tell you how long someone was out in the sun.

We found essentially no beryllium-10 or radiocarbon-14 in any of the 18 bedrock samples we measured in front of four tropical glaciers. That tells us there was never any significant prior exposure to cosmic radiation since these glaciers formed during the last ice age.”

So what does that mean for our planet?

Certainly nothing good. These findings suggest that glaciers are retreating much faster than the scientific community expected.

With the ever-advancing climate crisis, this is bad news, with glacier melt a contributory factor to one of many tipping points that could throw our climate into disaster.

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