Glacier Inférieur des Aiguilles Rouges
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.
Glacier Inférieur des Aiguilles Rouges is one of 1,400 glaciers in Switzerland, covering 0.15 km² in the canton of Valais. Its ice spans 2,858 to 3,345 m and faces south-east. Its meltwater drains to the Rhône and on to the Mediterranean. In 1850, at the end of the Little Ice Age, it covered 0.61 km²; by 2016 it had lost 76% of that area. Between 1983 and 2023 its surface dropped by 22 m on average. No glacier model run exists for it; on the map it follows the typical path of glaciers its size.
The record
Thinning since 1983
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
- B73-22
- Canton
- Valais
- River
- Rhône → Mediterranean
- Basin
- Hérens & Nendaz
- Location
- 46.0490° N, 7.4360° E · swisstopo map
- Elevation
- 2,858–3,345 m, median 2,960 m
- Slope, aspect
- 25°, south-east
- Debris cover
- 0.01 km² (5% of the area)
- Inventory image
- 2016
More in the Hérens & Nendaz basin
- Glacier du Mont Miné zentral10.05 km²
- Glacier de Ferpècle9.07 km²
- Bas Glacier d'Arolla5.07 km²
- Haut Glacier d'Arolla3.62 km²
- Glacier de Cheilon3.51 km²
- Glacier de Tsijiore Nouve zentral2.82 km²
- Glacier de la Vouasson zentral1.48 km²
- Glacier de l'En Darrey1.29 km²
- Glacier de Pièce1.28 km²
- Glacier de Bricola1.15 km²
- Glacier de la Dent Blanche1.10 km²
- Grand Désert1.09 km²
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
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.