Venezuela once had 6 glaciers covering 1,000 km2 in 1910, but they quickly diminished into small ice fields that no longer qualify as glaciers.
The disappearance of the last glacier, Humboldt, has made Venezuela the first country in modern times to witness the complete melting of its glaciers, IFL Science reported on May 8. In 1910, this South American country had 6 glaciers spanning a total area of 1,000 km2. However, they have shrunk into small ice patches that do not meet the criteria to be classified as glaciers.
The Humboldt Glacier is now small enough to be classified as an ice field. (Photo: Jorge Ferrer).
By 2011, 5 of Venezuela’s glaciers had vanished, leaving only the Humboldt Glacier, also known as La Corona, existing in Sierra Nevada National Park. However, Humboldt has now shrunk to the point of being reclassified as an ice field.
“Venezuela no longer has any glaciers. What we have is merely an ice patch that is 0.4% of its original size,” said Professor Julio Cesar Centeno at the University of the Andes (ULA).
In its prime, La Corona covered an area of 4.5 km2, but it has now shrunk to less than 0.02 km2, or 2 hectares. Typically, a glacier must have an area of at least 0.1 km2 to be considered a glacier.
Research conducted over the past five years indicates that glacier coverage in Venezuela has decreased by 98% from 1953 to 2019. The rate of ice loss accelerated after 1998, reaching a peak of approximately 17% per year from 2016 onwards.
La Corona was about 0.6 km2 in 1998 but had shrunk to the point of being at risk of losing its glacier status since 2015. “Our most recent expedition to this area took place in December 2023, and we found that the glacier had lost about 2 hectares compared to our previous visit in 2019, decreasing from 4 hectares to less than 2 hectares now,” said researcher Luis Daniel Llambi at ULA.
Also in December of last year, the Venezuelan government attempted to cover the Humboldt Glacier with geotextiles in hopes of insulating and protecting it. This plan not only failed but also outraged conservationists, who argued that it could lead to ecological pollution as the fabric breaks down into microplastics over time. “These microplastics are nearly invisible, they infiltrate the soil, from which they enter crops, wetlands, and the air. Ultimately, humans will consume and inhale them,” Centeno remarked.
