Glacier de Tsanfleuron
Tsanfleuron 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.
A glacier on a limestone plateau below the Glacier 3000 ski area. In 2017 the retreating ice released the bodies of a couple missing since 1942.
Glacier de Tsanfleuron is the 65th-largest glacier in Switzerland, covering 2.44 km² in the canton of Valais. Its ice spans 2,504 to 2,964 m and faces east. Its meltwater drains to the Rhône and on to the Mediterranean. In 1850, at the end of the Little Ice Age, it covered 7.18 km²; by 2016 it had lost 66% of that area. Its tongue has been measured 125 times since 1884. In total it has retreated 2,072 m, about 14.8 m a year. Its mass balance has been measured since 2010: on average −1.76 m of water equivalent per year, with the most negative year in 2022 (−4.00 m). Between 1974 and 2023 its surface dropped by 44 m on average. With strong climate protection (SSP1-2.6), about 0% of its 2020 ice would remain in 2100. With very high emissions (SSP5-8.5) it would be gone around 2046. Its meltwater peaked around 2023.
In pictures
What remains in 2100
Meltwater
Million m³ of water per year, 11-year mean
The record
Length change since 1884
Position of the glacier tongue, measured in the field almost every year. Hover for each measurement.
Mass balance 2010–2025
Ice gained (blue) or lost (red) over the whole glacier each year, in metres of water equivalent. Measured with stakes drilled into the ice.
Thinning since 1974
Average change in surface height, from comparing elevation models made from maps, aerial images and laser scans.
Facts
Area over time
Past areas are the ice body this glacier belonged to at the time. Projections: OGGM median, SSP2-4.5.
- SGI id
- B22-01
- Canton
- Valais
- River
- Rhône → Mediterranean
- Basin
- Diablerets–Wildhorn
- Location
- 46.3200° N, 7.2160° E · swisstopo map
- Elevation
- 2,504–2,964 m, median 2,771 m
- Slope, aspect
- 9°, east
- Debris cover
- 0.01 km² (0% of the area)
- Inventory image
- 2016
- Ice volume (model)
- ≈ 0.119 km³ in 2020 (OGGM)
- RGI ids
- RGI60-11.02249, RGI60-11.02265
Sources
- Linsbauer et al. (2021). The new Swiss Glacier Inventory SGI2016. Frontiers in Earth Science 9. doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.704189
- 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
- GLAMOS – Glacier Monitoring Switzerland. www.glamos.ch
- Zekollari et al. (2024). Twenty-first century global glacier evolution under CMIP6 scenarios and the role of glacier-specific observations. The Cryosphere 18 (OGGM v1.6 projections). tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/5045/2024/
- CBS News (2017). Glacier reveals bodies of couple who disappeared in 1942. www.cbsnews.com/news/glacier-bodies-switzerland-tsanfleuron-couple-dumoulin-swiss-alps/
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.