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Glaciers on volcanoes near Mexico City shrinking
Aug 6, 2007, 18:31 GMT
Mexico City - Glaciers on the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, west of Mexico City, are getting smaller and their temperature is increasing, a group of Mexican scientists warned.
The scientists said that over two decades the average temperature in the glaciers went increased from a range of minus 1 to 0 degrees Celsius to 1 degree Celsius, the Mexican daily La Jornada reported Monday.
Victor Magana of the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at Mexico's National Autonomous University and Elena Bourns of the Sierra Nevada project at the Metropolitan Autonomous University agreed that the increase in temperature causes a reduction in the size of the glaciers and a displacement of water to lower areas that increases the risk of flooding.
The glacier on Popocatepetl, a mountain that is 5,452 metres high, occupied an area of 0.7 square kilometres in 1964, but decreased to 0.53 square kilometres by 2000, according to official measurements.
The glacier on the 5,286-metre-high Iztaccihuatl occupied 1.2 square kilometres in 1964. Its size had been reduced by 71 per cent by 2005, according to scientific studies.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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