Venezuela’s Last Glacier, Humboldt, Has Melted Away
Satellite image of Venezuela’s Humboldt Glacier captured on April 28, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8.
Satellite image of Venezuela’s Humboldt Glacier captured on May 14, 2024, by the Operational Land Imager-2 on Landsat 9.
Venezuela is the first postglacial nation in the Andes, as its last substantial patch of ice is now considered too small to flow under its own weight.
Venezuela’s Humboldt Glacier has completely disappeared, marking a significant environmental change as it was the last glacier in a country historically covered by such ice formations. Satellite imagery from 2015 to 2024 documents this decline, showcasing the glacier’s reduction from about 0.1 square kilometers to nearly non-existent. This loss reflects a broader pattern of retreating tropical glaciers worldwide, exacerbated by rising global temperatures.
Humboldt Glacier in Venezuela has met its demise. The loss is the latest blow to our planet’s dwindling tropical glaciers, which have been shrinking and disappearing as temperatures have warmed.
