Vadret da Palü
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.
Vadret da Palü is the 40th-largest glacier in Switzerland, covering 5.37 km² in the canton of Graubünden. Its ice spans 2,593 to 3,845 m and faces east. Its meltwater drains to the Po and on to the Adriatic. In 1850, at the end of the Little Ice Age, it covered 8.10 km²; by 2016 it had lost 34% of that area. Its tongue has been measured 88 times since 1894. In total it has retreated 1,393 m, about 10.7 m a year. Between 1934 and 2022 its surface dropped by 23 m on average. With strong climate protection (SSP1-2.6), about 25% of its 2020 ice would remain in 2100. With very high emissions (SSP5-8.5) it would be gone around 2075. Its meltwater peaked around 2020.
In pictures
What remains in 2100
Meltwater
Million m³ of water per year, 11-year mean
The record
Length change since 1894
Position of the glacier tongue, measured in the field almost every year. Hover for each measurement.
Thinning since 1934
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
- C93-04
- Canton
- Graubünden
- River
- Po → Adriatic
- Basin
- Poschiavino
- Location
- 46.3690° N, 9.9690° E · swisstopo map
- Elevation
- 2,593–3,845 m, median 3,196 m
- Slope, aspect
- 22°, east
- Debris cover
- 0.34 km² (6% of the area)
- Inventory image
- 2015
- Ice volume (model)
- ≈ 0.205 km³ in 2020 (OGGM)
- RGI ids
- RGI60-11.02144, RGI60-11.02213
More in the Poschiavino basin
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/
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.