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HEILIGENBLUT, AUSTRIA - SEPTEMBER 13: Andreas Kellerer-Pirklbauer-Eulenstein (L), a geographer at the University of Graz, and colleague Rupert Schwarzl prepare to take a GPS reading at a precise survey point on the tongue of the Pasterze glacier, which once entirely filled the basin visible behind, during annual data collection on September 13, 2023 near Heiligenblut, Austria. Andreas was leading a team of scientists collecting data to assess changes in length, depth and flow of the Pasterze, Austria’s biggest glacier, as part of an annual monitoring project of 89 Austrian glaciers administered by the Austrian Alpine Association (Oesterreichischer Alpenverein). The Pasterze is losing length and depth in a process that has accelerated to a record degree over the past ten years, with a loss of 87.4 meters in length and 14.7 million cubic meters of ice last year alone. While Austria's glaciers have been steadily receding since the Little Ice Age of the mid 19th-century, periods of intermittent glacier growth extended into the 1980s. Since then the glaciers have been receding rapidly, with the pace of melting having accelerated sharply in the last decade. Scientists blame global warming, which is extending and intensifying the summer melting season of the glaciers. In addition, diminished annual snowfalls are leaving the glaciers more exposed to the sun and preventing the formation of new ice. (Footage by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)