Mexican Volcanic Glaciers Disappearing Due to Climate Change
by Eliza Barclay, Washington, D.C. 
on 12.19.08
Photo credit: Peakware
We already know that glaciers in South America, the Arctic, the Himalayas and East Africa are melting at a swift clip. Now we have some news from Mexico. At a recent meeting of Latin American climate scientists, geophysicist Hugo Delgado of Mexico's National Autonomous University presented data showing that the glaciers atop the Iztaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba volcanoes in Central Mexico will disappear in the next 10 to 35 years due to global warming. Delgado predicts that Iztaccíhuatl glacier will be gone in 15 to 20 years, while Pico de Orizaba (the highest peak in Mexico) may last for 35 years. In 1999, Delgado's study showed that the glacier at Iztaccíhuatl had a depth of 70 meters.
By 2004, it had dropped to 40 meters. Delgado also notes that erosion and desertification have increased as the glaciers have melting, affecting nearby farming communities in the Valley of Mexico.
"If there are no while zones on top of the volcanoes, the solar radiation is absorbed, which generated an increase in temperature and local climate change, like desertification or the inhibition of pluvial precipitation," Degaldo told SciDev.net in an interview. : SciDev.net (Spanish link)
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