Abstract

Glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change, but the magnitude and timing of these changes depend on a variety of geographic variables. As an illustration of the relation between land ice and climate change, an outline of glacier changes taking place in the extra-tropical Andes of Chile and Argentina since 1985 is presented. These changes are analyzed in connection to ongoing atmospheric warming, and projections of temperature and precipitation changes. After analyzing 41 glaciers located in the region, a general trend of area shrinkage has been detected. These negative changes have been detected among mountain, valley, volcanic-related, ice-field, freshwater, and tidewater calving glaciers. The semiarid and Mediterranean Andes, where glaciers are relatively smaller, are suffering greater percentages of areal losses; however, the biggest individual areas lost were observed in Patagonia where the retreat rates have accelerated in recent decades. If ongoing climate changes are to continue, as projected in different climate change scenarios, many of the smaller glaciers along the extra-tropical Andes will disappear by the end of the century.