Swiss glaciers 1850–2100

Fuorcla d'Urezzas

IceIce lost since 1850This glacier

Past extents come from the Swiss Glacier Inventories of 1850, 1931, 1973 and 2016. Future extents are illustrative: each glacier’s projected area (OGGM, median of CMIP6 climate models) is removed from its lowest ice upward. About the scenarios. This glacier has no model run of its own; its future follows the typical path of glaciers its size.

Inventory 0.177km² Area in 2016 · ±0% compared with 2016
Area 20160.18km²502nd largest
Elevation2,787–3,078mmedian 2,995 m
Length0.5kmfaces east
Area since 1850−73%0.64 km² in 1850
Thinning 1991–2022−20maverage surface lowering

Fuorcla d'Urezzas is one of 1,400 glaciers in Switzerland, covering 0.18 km² in the canton of Graubünden. Its ice spans 2,787 to 3,078 m and faces east. Its meltwater drains to the Inn and on to the Black Sea. In 1850, at the end of the Little Ice Age, it covered 0.64 km²; by 2016 it had lost 73% of that area. Between 1991 and 2022 its surface dropped by 20 m on average. No glacier model run exists for it; on the map it follows the typical path of glaciers its size.

Measured

The record

Thinning since 1991

Average change in surface height, from comparing elevation models made from maps, aerial images and laser scans.

−25 m−20 m−15 m−10 m−5 m0 m199520002005201020152020−20 m
GLAMOS Swiss Glacier Volume Change, release 2025.
Profile

Facts

Area over time

18500.645 km²19310.357 km²19730.294 km²20160.177 km²2050 · SSP2-4.50.000 km²2100 · SSP2-4.50.000 km²

Past areas are the ice body this glacier belonged to at the time. Projections: OGGM median, SSP2-4.5.

SGI id
E52-02
Canton
Graubünden
River
Inn → Black Sea
Basin
Inn
Location
46.8490° N, 10.1620° E · swisstopo map
Elevation
2,787–3,078 m, median 2,995 m
Slope, aspect
17°, east
Debris cover
0.01 km² (5% of the area)
Inventory image
2014
Sources

Sources

  1. Linsbauer et al. (2021). The new Swiss Glacier Inventory SGI2016. Frontiers in Earth Science 9. doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.704189
  2. Mannerfelt et al. (2022). Halving of Swiss glacier volume since 1931 observed from terrestrial image photogrammetry. The Cryosphere 16. doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3249-2022
  3. GLAMOS – Glacier Monitoring Switzerland. www.glamos.ch

Relief: swisstopo swissALTIRegio. 1850 and 1973 outlines: Maisch et al. (2000), Müller et al. (1976), Paul (2004). Length, mass balance and volume change: GLAMOS releases 2025. All sources and methods.

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