Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest peak, has lost more than two meters of height since 2021, French researchers said on Thursday, as cited by Reuters.

A team of surveyors and other experts who measure the mountain every two years told a press conference in Chamonix, in the French Alps, that it now stands at 4,805.59 meters above sea level.

The last measurement, made in September 2021, showed that the height of Mont Blanc at that time was 4807.81 meters.

Experts say it is now up to climatologists, glaciologists and other researchers to analyze the collected data and formulate hypotheses to explain the phenomenon.

“Measurements are carried out on a live pike. In terms of climate change, monitoring changes will allow us to better understand their effects,” said Luc Moreau, an expert on glaciers.

The height of mountains decreases due to the melting of glaciers

Mont Blanc’s official height has been declining for more than a decade amid melting glaciers around the world due to global warming.

In 2007, he was 4,810.90 meters tall, having lost 40 centimeters before the next measurement, which took place two years later.

The results, announced on Thursday by a French research team on the height of Mont Blanc, come just days after GLAMOS, the Swiss monitoring system, announced that it had lost 10% of its volume in the past two years.

Switzerland’s glaciers melted at a record pace last year, and this year’s figures show 2023 will be the second worst year on record.

PHOTO article: Vaclav Volrab, Dreamstime.com.