Overview

• Since 2019, radar and satellite observations reveal that Perito Moreno’s thinning rate has jumped from about 0.34 meters per year to over 5.5 meters per year.
• Helicopter-borne radar surveys mapped a deep bedrock ridge at the glacier’s terminus, showing that further ice loss could lift the ice off its anchor and trigger irreversible retreat.
• In some sectors along the northwestern shore, the glacier has retreated by up to 800 meters over the past four years, underscoring accelerating mass loss.
• Researchers say the abrupt acceleration lacks a clear cause, with potential factors including shifts in snowfall, air temperature and subglacial water flow.
• The glacier’s decline mirrors global trends of mass loss—most notably the 2018 retreat of Alaska’s Taku Glacier—underscoring the limited resilience of local geomorphology to sustained warming.