Thawing ice makes the Alps grow

The Alps are steadily “growing” by about one to two millimeters per year. Likewise, the formerly glaciated subcontinents of North America and Scandinavia are also undergoing constant upward movement. This is due to the fact that at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) about 18,000 years ago the glaciers melted and with this the former heavy pressure on the Earth’s surface diminished. The ice reacted rapidly to climate change at that time whereas the Earth’s crust is still responding today to this relatively sudden melting of ice.

During the LGM the Alps were also coated with an ice cap that temporarily reached far into the alpine foreland. The extent of glaciation was much smaller here than on the subcontinents of North America and Scandinavia. This is why it was assumed for a long time that the retreat of the ice cap back then did not play a significant role in the steady uplifting of the Alps today. However, an international team with the participation of the GFZ scientists Dirk Scherler and Taylor Schildgen has now been able to show that the loss of the LGM ice cap still accounts for 90 percent of today’s uplifting of the Alps.