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#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

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 Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...

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 re ...

. 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 wi ...

mountain group, it lies just beneath the

Corno Grande Corno Grande (Italian for "great horn") is the highest point in the Apennine Mountains, situated in Abruzzo, central Italy. Part of the Gran Sasso massif, it is the highest peak of the Italian Peninsula at . It is the highest peak in mainland I ...

, the highest peak in the Apennines. With the disappearance of the

Corral de la Veleta Veleta (from the Arab word "Balata", meaning cliff) or Pico del Veleta is the second highest peak of the Iberian peninsula and the Sierra Nevada. Its height is given variously as , and . The mountain can be seen from the city of Granada. Vele ...

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 primarily ...

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 pol ...

of 41°46′09″ N) and Banski Suhodol Glaciers in

Pirin , photo=Pirin-mountains-Bansko.jpg , photo_caption=Pirin scenery in winter , country= Bulgaria, , parent= , geology= granite, gneiss, marble, limestone , area_km2=2585 , range_coordinates = , length_km=80 , length_orientation= north-s ...

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 Macedon ...

. 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 B ...

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