Swiss glaciers 1850–2100

Glatscher da Strem

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 0.117km² Area in 2016 · ±0% compared with 2016
Area 20160.12km²627th largest
Elevation2,536–3,075mmedian 2,674 m
Length0.6kmfaces south-west
Area since 1850−81%0.62 km² in 1850
Thinning 1973–2022−15maverage surface lowering

Glatscher da Strem is one of 1,400 glaciers in Switzerland, covering 0.12 km² in the canton of Graubünden. Its ice spans 2,536 to 3,075 m and faces south-west. Its meltwater drains to the Rhine and on to the North Sea. In 1850, at the end of the Little Ice Age, it covered 0.62 km²; by 2016 it had lost 81% of that area. Between 1973 and 2022 its surface dropped by 15 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 1973

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

−20 m−15 m−10 m−5 m0 m19801990200020102020−15 m
GLAMOS Swiss Glacier Volume Change, release 2025.
Profile

Facts

Area over time

18500.615 km²19310.425 km²19730.308 km²20160.117 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
A14j-03
Canton
Graubünden
River
Rhine → North Sea
Basin
Alpine Rhine
Location
46.7435° N, 8.7666° E · swisstopo map
Elevation
2,536–3,075 m, median 2,674 m
Slope, aspect
27°, south-west
Debris cover
0.03 km² (30% of the area)
Inventory image
2016
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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