A married couple from England shocked internet users with their family photos published on social networks. Duncan Porter and his wife recently shared their vacation photos taken 15 years apart in the same place (Rhône Glacier in the Swiss Alps).
If a snow-covered glacier behind Porters was removed in August 2009, by August 2024 the ice would have melted and exposed the gray bedrock. The small pool below, not visible in the first photo, has become a lake.
Two years ago, a unique photo archive collected by Swiss topographers allowed scientists to estimate the amount of ice on Alpine peaks starting in the 1930s and to trace the changes since then. According to calculations, local glaciers halved by 2016 alone and have been melting even faster since then.