Venezuela’s last glacier melts beyond recognition

La Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela, has melted to the point that it is no longer considered a glacier.

While all the glaciers atop the Andes Mountain range along South America have shrunk over time, Venezuela is the first country within the range to have lost enough surface area to no longer have any glaciers on its peaks. La Corona sits on the Humboldt Peak and is now considered an ice field by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, like its previous six glaciers.

The classification of an ice field requires that a frozen dome must have less than 20,000 square miles according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Glaciers are anything greater to about 270,000 square miles.

This comes after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attempted to slow the natural melting process of the glacier by covering it in thermal blankets last December. However glaciers are known to wax and wane in size over time.

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Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru also encompass parts of the Andes range and still report glaciers. Pico Humboldt is the 74th tallest peak of about 90 peaks across the range at over 16,000 feet. It is the second-tallest in Venezuela.

Glacier runoff contributes to the majority of hydropower in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia, per the ICCI. The group blames melting on the temperature increase of 0.10 °C per decade there over the last 70 years.