This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: When will the glacier in your valley disappear? Will the glacier you visited as a child still exist in 2050?
And how much difference would limiting global warming make? Scientists have launched the Global Glacier Extinction Explorer, a new interactive website that allows anyone to explore the projected future of individual glaciers around the world. By visiting www.glacierextinction.com, users can investigate whether, and approximately when, a glacier is projected to disappear under different levels of global warming.
The platform builds on a recent study published in Nature Climate Change, led by researchers from ETH Zurich and Vrije Universiteit Brussel together with an international research team. The study provided the first global assessment of the disappearance of individual glaciers and showed that the world is approaching a period of unprecedented glacier extinction. The website was developed by lead author Lander Van Tricht (ETH Zurich / VUB) together with Kristof Van Tricht (VITO Remote Sensing), translating the scientific projections into an accessible interactive map.
"Global numbers such as glacier mass or area loss can feel very abstract. With this website, people can zoom into their own valley or mountain region and see what different levels of global warming could mean for the glaciers they know," says Van Tricht. "We hope it can also help local communities prepare for a future with fewer glaciers." The launch comes at another difficult moment for European glaciers. 2026 is once again proving to be a particularly bad year for glaciers in the European Alps.
Final end-of-summer measurements are still ongoing, but preliminary observations suggest that 2026 could become one of the worst years for Alpine glaciers since systematic measurements began. A combination of low winter snow accumulation and several summer heat waves has resulted in substantial ice loss across the Alps. For the smallest glaciers, another extreme melt season can be enough to push them beyond the threshold of survival.
One example is Bella Tola Glacier near Saint-Luc, Switzerland, which was officially declared extinct in August 2026 after almost completely disappearing. Strikingly, this closely matches the projections presented in the Nature Climate Change study: Bella Tola was projected to disappear between 2026 and 2029. Urirotstock Glacier was also declared extinct this summer, providing another tangible example of the rapid disappearance of Switzerland's smallest glaciers.
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