Presena Glacier Covered with Tarps

Presena Glacier Covered with Tarps

Giant sheets of tarpaulin (tarps) are being used to cover Presena glacier in northern Italy to slow melting caused by global warming.

• It is a part of the conservation project (undertaken by Italian firm Carosello-Tonale) which was launched in 2008 — at that point, only 30,000 sq meters of the glacier were covered.

Key Points

• Covering of the Glacier:
• Tarpaulin sheets (tarps) are being laid over 1,00,000 sq meters of the Presena glacier.
• Rs. 34,091 tarpaulin sheets will be sewn together once they are stretched over the snow to keep warm air out. Bags of sand are used to weigh them down.
• This six-week process is repeated every year once the ski season is over and summer begins in full force.
• A ski season is a period when skiing, snowboarding, and other alpine sports are viable in an alpine resort.
• The process of removing the protective tarps will begin in September and will take six months.
• Tarpaulin Sheets:
• Tarpaulin is a large sheet of strong, flexible and water-resistant material, often coated and made of plastics such as polyethylene.
• Geotextile tarpaulins reflect sunlight, maintain a temperature lower than the external one, and thus preserve as much snow as possible.
• There are similar glacier cover systems on a few Austrian glaciers, but the surface covered by the tarpaulins is much smaller.
• Concern:
• Since 1993, the Presena glacier has lost more than one-third of its volume.
• The area is continuously shrinking, so the efforts are made towards covering the area as much as possible.

Presena Glacier

• Situated between the regions of Trentino and Lombardy in Northern Italy, the glacier is part of the Presanella mountain (Alps) group.
• It has a high altitude natural environment.