The Calderone glacier ( it, Ghiacciaio del Calderone) is a

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

located in the

Apennine Mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

Abruzzo , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Found in the

Gran Sasso d'Italia Gran Sasso d'Italia (; ) is a massif in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Its highest peak, Corno Grande (2,912 metres), is the highest mountain in the Apennines, and the second-highest mountain in Italy outside the Alps. The mountain lies ...

mountain group, it lies just beneath the Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennines. With the disappearance of the Corral de la Veleta glacier in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

in 1913, "Il Calderone" became one of Europe's southernmost known glaciers (42°28′N, 13°33′E), being slightly to the north only compared to

Snezhnika Snezhnika ( bg, Снежника 'the snow patch') is a glacieret in the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria, a remnant of the former Vihren Glacier.Grunewald, p. 129. The glacieret lies at an elevation between and in the deep Golemiya Kazan cirque at t ...

(

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...

of 41°46′09″ N) and

Banski Suhodol Glacier The Banski Suhodol Glacier ( bg, Ледника в Бански Суходол, ''Lednika v Banski Suhodol'') is a small glacier (glacieret) in the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria. It lies below the Kutelo peak (2908 m.) in the upper Banski Suhodol ...

s in Pirin Mountain in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. If present deglaciation trends continue, the Calderone may soon disappear as well. The discovery of a number of small glaciers in the

Accursed Mountains The Accursed Mountains ( sq, Bjeshkët e Nemuna; sh-Cyrl-Latn, Проклетије, Prokletije, ; both translated as "Cursed Mountains"), also known as the Albanian Alps ( sq, Alpet Shqiptare), are a mountain group in the western part of the ...

in 2009 seemed to threaten Calderone's positions.

Historical surface of the glacier

In 1794, the Calderone had an estimated volume of over 4 million cubic metres; by 1916, the glacier’s volume had decreased to 3.3 million cubic metres, and by 1990, it had decreased to 360,931 cubic metres. In 1998 Italian glaciologists at a symposium in

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of both the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valle ...

predicted that the Calderone would vanish within a couple decades. Some glaciologists have predicted that the glacier will disappear by 2020. However, 2014 has been slightly positive for the glacier. By the end of August 2014, the volume of residual ice was larger than during the same period in 2013. It disappeared in 2016 after droughts.

References

{{Reflist Glaciers of Italy Mountains of Abruzzo Apennine Mountains