El Niño Causing Andean Glaciers to Melt at Fastest Rate in Years

New data revealed tropical glaciers are melting at the fastest rate in over a decade due to the latest El Niño event.

The current weather conditions, when compounded with global warming, may see the demise of these glaciers within a few decades, the New Scientist reports.

"The lower-level glaciers in the Andes, below 5500 meters (over 18,000 ft), are really endangered now and probably only have a couple of decades left," said director Michael Zemp of the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich, Switzerland.

According to studies conducted by the organization, the first decade of the new century brought the greatest loss of glacier ice ever recorded. Data showed melting rates two to three times higher than those measured in the 1900s.

The glacial meltdown will likely have disastrous effects, including water and hydropower shortages, the eradication of rare and vital habitats, and the elimination of geological records recorded within glacial layers.

According to climate scientist Doug Hardy of the University of Massachusetts, the last 12 years have seen the lowest accumulation of snow at the world's largest tropic glacier, the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru.

"We're seeing 40 per cent more melting than any other year since measurements started in 2002," he said.

Jorge Luis Ceballos Lievano of the the Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies Institute in Bogota has also documented the extreme glacial loss. Around 43 percent of Columbia's Conejeras glacier has melted in the last two years with two thirds of the loss due to the current El Niño cycle.

"2015 was particularly bad for this glacier, and if losses persist it is possible that it will be extinct by 2030 or before," Lievano says.

Some glaciers, such as the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia (former site of the world's highest ski resort), have already disappeared.

The melting of these glaciers will have a deep impact on the environment. Bolivia and Peru both rely on glacial runoff for the summer water supply. Likewise, between 11 and 38 percent of species in an area could die off due to local glacier loss.