PARIS, October 5. /TASS/. Mont Blanc, located in the Alps and considered Europe's highest peak, has shrunk by 2.2 meters over the past ten years, France Info radio quoted researchers from the Haute-Savoie department as saying.

Measurements were made from September 14 to 16 by a group of topographers, scientists and athletes, including renowned French biathlete Martin Fourcade. According to their findings, the mountain is currently 4,805.59 meters high.

This procedure is carried out every two years. The researchers note that the height of the mountain varies slightly each year depending on precipitation and snowmelt at the top, but the current reading is the lowest in recorded history. In 2001, researchers recorded the height of the mountain at 4,810.40 meters and it did not fall below 4,808 meters until 2019, when it came in at a then record low of 4,806 meters, a fact that was not disclosed immediately. Comparatively, the height of the rocky part of the mountain without the snow and ice "cap" is estimated at 4,792 meters.

"The thickness of the so-called perpetual snow is affected by wind and precipitation," Luc Moreau, a glaciologist from the Edytem laboratory in Chamonix, explained. He emphasized that the current decrease in the thickness of the "cap" is not directly related to global warming, because the snow hardly melts at such an altitude. However, it can be interpreted as a consequence of climate change. "Given the lack of precipitation over the last two winters and the two heat waves of 2022 and 2023, the measured height is consistent with the climate we have had over the last two years," he said. "It is also a result of the drought caused by warming in Europe and especially in the Alps."

"It now remains to be seen whether the downward trend in Mont Blanc's height will continue over the next few years or whether the peak will rise again in two to four years. But we have a feeling that the ice thickness is starting to decrease," geomorphologist Ludovic Ravanel said. In his opinion, if this trend is real, Alpine glaciers will lose up to 99% of their volume by 2100.