Some time ago we shared with our readers the story of Francesco Sauro, geologist and speleologist and 2014 Rolex Awards Laureate, who had dedicated himself to discovering the most amazing secrets of the Earth in the bowels of the tepuis of Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela. At that time, the Italian explorer was attracted by a phenomenon that was urging his attention: the rapid melting of glaciers.
Accompanied by the La Venta team, an association of experienced cavers, Sauro did not have to travel to the ends of the Earth to study this phenomenon up close, but much closer, to the vicinity of one of the world's most celebrated ski destinations: the Swiss Alps - the frozen heart of Europe - home to impressive ice masses that are already seeing the effects of climate change at an ever-increasing rate.
Sauro began his work on the Gorner glacier, the second largest in the mountain chain and which, with the rest of these imposing millennial formations, has entered a melting phase that seems irreversible. The objective, beyond the observation of the phenomenon, was to understand the dynamics of the meltwater, information that would allow answering key questions that, until then, had no answers: how and why do glaciers melt, how fast is it happening, how much heat is entering their interior, what is the size of the emergence? To find out, it was necessary for Sauro and his team to go deep into the ice caves to look beneath the surface and gather information that has not been taken into account so far when studying glacier loss.
Although these snowy landscapes are of prodigious beauty, the reality is that diving into their caverns is not without its dangers: during the summer, when the snowmelt is at its peak, water is constantly flowing and the walls can collapse at any moment. For this reason, Sauro and his team must carefully calculate each step and use technology that can obtain observations beyond human reach when they determine that the risk is too high. They make use of crash-proof drones, which travel through the most remote corners of the tunnels and caverns, aided by a light system and photogrammetry. The imaging has helped, using laser scanners, to draw detailed three-dimensional maps of the interior of these ice and rock formations, which can be checked against subsequent measurements to define how much mass has been lost over a given period.
Sauro, however, believes that the sites he studies today are likely to be gone within a year: "The caves where we work now in the dark will open up to the surface and the rocks will see the sunlight. And that certainty is what makes his mission a race against time. The expedition that took place in the summer of 2022 focused on the intersection of the Gorner and Grenz glaciers, where caves as long as they are deep form between bedrock and ice. There he discovered that heat transfer occurs when water runs between rocks that the sun has heated, infiltrates the glaciers, and raises the temperature of the surrounding environment in its path. The ice surfaces gradually melt, in contact with this torrent, and gradually expose the substrate. In a feedback effect, the more water that melts and infiltrates into the caves, the more water will melt, which also endangers the communities living in the valley who are at risk of flooding.
There is no simple solution to the shrinking glaciers, but Sauro assures that he will continue his research work with the patience and perseverance that the mission demands, and the information his expeditions yield will allow him to understand the world on long geologic time scales and how its most vulnerable environments function.
Green Inspiration is a series of articles developed by Local.mx to showcase relevant environmental projects. In collaboration with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, our goal is to raise awareness, inspire new generations and encourage good ideas that improve life on earth. Learn more about these initiatives at rolex.org.
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