According to a new scientific study, 6,542 billion tons of ice mass were lost globally in the past 23 years. This loss led to a rise of 18 millimeters in sea levels.

Excluding ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, glaciers globally contained 121,728 billion tons of ice in the year 2020. Since then, they have been losing approximately 5% of their ice mass every year.

Locally, 2% of Antarctica’s glaciers and 9% of glaciers in Central Europe disappear every year. A new study conducted by an international research team coordinated by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) at the University of Zurich in Switzerland provides the most comprehensive information on glacier changes worldwide. The researchers leading the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (GlaMBIE) project collected, merged, and analyzed changes in glacier extent using different field methods and satellite observations for the period from 2000 to 2023. Particularly, researchers compiled estimates of changes in ice mass for 233 local glaciers from 450 data sources.

MORE THAN 6 THOUSAND TONS OF LOSS IN MASSES
According to the findings of GlaMBIE, a loss of 6,542 billion tons in the global glacier mass was recorded from 2000 to 2023. This loss contributed to an 18-millimeter rise in sea levels. The annual increase rate was reported as 0.75 mm. These results place glaciers as the second responsible factor for the global sea level rise after ocean warming.

INCREASE OF 36% IN ICE LOSS
Annually, glaciers lost 273 billion tons of ice, marking a 36% increase from the first half (2000-2011) to the second half (2012-2023) of the analysis period. Ice mass loss was approximately 18% higher than that of the Greenland ice sheet loss and more than double the loss of the Antarctic ice sheet.