World's First Glacier Graveyard Unveiled with Global Casualty List

Rice University Researchers unveiled the world’s first glacier graveyard with the “Global Glacier Casualty List” at Reykjavík, Iceland. This graveyard symbolizes the burial of glaciers that have disappeared due to climate change worldwide.

This research aims to monitor the ice sheets (glaciers) lost to climate change. If current climate change trends continue, 2/3rd of the world’s glaciers are expected to disappear by the end of this century.

Researchers conducted this research study by getting inspiration from the world’s first glacier funeral that took place in 2018. It dates to five years ago when Okjokull became the first glacier in Iceland to lose due to global warming.

*World’s first glacier graveyard unveiled at Iceland*

The burial of Okjokull was a visually striking event that tragically shows what climate change threatens to destroy. Even though it was only a symbolic gesture.

Cultural anthropologist Cymene Howe is a Professor at Rice University. He stated that the Okjokull Memorial inspired several glaciologists to measure how many glaciers had already disappeared in their countries worldwide.

According to research, New Zealand alone witnessed 264 glaciers disappear. Over 8,300 glaciers have vanished from China in the last few decades.

Professor Cymene stated they would collaborate with scientists and communities to add to the “Global Glacier Casualty List” each year as glaciers, continue to die.

*Every disappeared glacier around the world will contribute to a glacier graveyard*

Click here to read the updates on Peru lost more than half of its glaciers in just over a half-century

The list will contain 15 recently lost and highly threatened glaciers worldwide. The list was launched in advance of 2025 which the United Nations called the “International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.”

The launch of this list will overlap with the world’s first glacier graveyard unveiled to the public on August 17, 2024, on the Seltjarnarnes peninsula. It is close to Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.

This graveyard will have 15 headstones with glacier names that have vanished due to global warming worldwide. However, Icelandic ice sculptor Otto Magnusson will carve graveyard headstones.