Calderone glacier

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"Il Calderone", Europe's southernmost glacier as seen in July 2007, deglaciation has not slowed, making it  unlikely the Calderone will survive past 2020
"Il Calderone", Europe's southernmost glacier as seen in July 2007, deglaciation has not slowed, making it unlikely the Calderone will survive past 2020

The Calderone glacier (Ghiacciaio del Calderone) located in the Gran Sasso d’Italia mountain group in Abruzzo, Italy lies just beneath Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennines.

With the disappearance of the Corral de la Veleta glacier (37° N) in 1913, which lay in Spain's Sierra Nevada, "Il Calderone" became Europe's southernmost glacier (42°28′N, 13°33′E). If present deglaciation trends continue, the Calderone will soon share Corral de la Veleta's fate.

In 1797, the Calderone had an estimated volume of over 4 million cubic meters; by 1916, the glacier’s volume had decreased to 3.3 million cubic meters, and by 1990, it had decreased to 360,931 cubic meters. [1] In 1998 Italian glaciologists at a symposium in L'Aquila predicted that the Calderone would vanish within a few decades. Global Change and Protected Areas (Advances in Global Change Research). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 425-435. ISBN 0-7923-6918-1. 

Coordinates: 42°28′N 13°33′E / 42.467, 13.55