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King penguins on Heard Island. (CSIRO:\u00a0Matt Curnock)<\/p>\n
It’s also home to the tallest mountain in Australia’s external territories<\/a>, excluding Antarctica \u2014 a 2,745-metre-high active volcano called Big Ben, which is 517 metres taller than Mt Kosciuszko on the mainland.<\/p>\n But scientists from Monash University’s Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF) research centre said glacier coverage on the island was undergoing accelerating decline.<\/p>\n “These findings are a bellwether of change for our global climate system,” SAEF research fellow Dr Levan Tielidze said. Expeditioners plant an Australian flag while setting up camp during the second attempt to climb Big Ben in 1953. (Australian Antarctic Division: John B\u00e9chervaise)<\/p>\n The research team used topographic maps and satellite imagery to identify changes to 29 glaciers on the island between 1947 and 2019.<\/p>\n The study showed the loss of 64 square kilometres of glacier coverage over the 72-year period \u2014 a 22 per cent decline.<\/p>\n The team said the rate of ice loss after 1988 was double that seen beforehand.<\/p>\n Ice formations on the coastal landscape of Heard Island. (CSIRO: Pete Harmsen)<\/p>\n ‘Five-sigma’ event in Antarctica<\/a><\/p>\n Antarctic sea ice levels took a nose dive\u00a0at a time of year when sea ice usually forms reliably \u2014 and that has experts worried.\u00a0<\/p>\n The reduction in the island’s glaciers occurred as temperatures in the area increased by 0.7 degrees Celcius.<\/p>\n “While Heard Island is just about as remote as it’s possible to be on Earth, it has still suffered profound consequences from climate warming, which is almost certainly due to rising greenhouse gas emissions in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Dr Tielidze said.<\/p>\n “The island’s location in the Southern Ocean makes it a key part of the global climate system and an important indicator of the planet’s health.<\/p>\n “The changes we are observing paint a really clear and concerning picture.”Upcoming voyage to allow further sub-Antarctic research<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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