23 Oct 2003
High temperatures shrink Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain in Saint Gervais, France, has shrunk nearly two metres in the last two years because of unusually warm weather, according to a team of French researchers.
The peak, which had a recorded altitude of 4,810.4 metres in September 2001, now stands at 4,808.45 metres, a loss of 1.95 metres, according to the topographic readings taken in September.
A spokesman for the team, Pierre Bibollet, told journalists that the difference could be explained by the “the combined effect of the wind, which has worn down the peak, and the temperature, because the snow was warmer and it was compressed faster.”
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