The Retreat of the Ice Giants

Alpine Glaciers and their Secrets

Author: Kerstin Mommsen

Length: 54'

In the summer of 2003, the Vernagtferner glacier lost as much meltwater daily as the entire metropolitan area of Munich consumes in one day, namely 350 million litres. In recent years, the speed of glacial flow has decreased substantially, which can also be seen in the declining number of crevasses. Mighty ice caves forming at the edges of glacier snouts are a further indicator. If the unprecedented thaw should continue, then glaciers would cease to exist in Europe by the year 2100. Glaciologists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, have been looking into the causes and consequences of glacial retreat. During an elaborate expedition the Swiss scientists are trying to find answers to the question why Switzerland’s Gorner glacier regularly fills a glacial lake, whose water is then suddenly released in an outburst flood. The glaciologists spend several months every year on the ice, boring probe holes up to 400 metres deep. Their experiments have succeeded in deciphering the puzzling glacial discharge system. Meltwater and the permanent motion of the glacier form galleries, channels and often even large caves in its interior. Few scientists dare to enter into this netherworld. Meltwater and falling ice present an enormous danger. A French-Swiss team, however, undertook a descent into the labyrinth inside the Gorner glacier. The footage from the glacier’s interior is extraordinary. A continuing glacial retreat would be a disaster not only from an environmental but also from an economic aspect. In an attempt to combat it, several Austrian skiing resorts have launched an experiment for the preservation of glacial ice. In the summer of 2005 they covered the most exposed areas with thin white fleece blankets. The results are encouraging: 1.6 metres’ depth of ice could be saved from melting. The glacier d'Argentière in Chamonix, the second-largest glacier in the French Alps, is another declining ice giant. A system of underground caves and tunnels that is unequalled worldwide built beneath the 400-metre thick ice is the workplace of glaciologist Luc Moreau. The results of his research work are impressive. The documentary affords an in-depth view into one of the most fascinating new research areas of recent years. Expeditions with Europe’s leading glaciologists transport the viewer into enormous ice caves and deep glacial lakes and call attention to the efforts these scientists make to understand and perhaps even prevent the retreat of the ice giants. A SPIEGEL TV production in co-production with ATVplus

year of production: 2006