Mont Blanc is part of a crucial ecology in Europe. (File Photo)
Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in France, has shrunk in the last two years, the BBC said quoting a new research. The mountain's peak has been measured at 4,805.59 metres, which is 2.22 metres shorter than in 2021. Mont Blanc is measured by climate scientists every two years to track the impact of climate change on the Alps. Chief geometer Jean des Garets was quoted by the outlet as saying that the shrinking could have been caused by less rain this summer.
"The summit is constantly changing in altitude and position, with changes of up to five metres. Mont Blanc could well be much taller in two years," Mr des Garets told the BBC.
However, other experts said that the mountain was losing around 13 centimetres of height every year.
The latest survey was done by a team from the Haute-Savoie regional administration, with the help of a drone, said The Guardian.
In 2021, the height of the summit was recorded at 4,807.81 metres, which was in turn almost a metre less than the measurement taken in 2017.
Denis Borel, one of the surveyors involved, told the French televisions channel TF1 that the mountain had lost "3,500 cubic metres of ice and snow compared to the volume measured in 2021, representing roughly the volume of an Olympic swimming pool".
He added that the loss was "quite considerable compared to the measurements of previous eras".
However, climatologists said shrinking of Mont Blanc's summit should not be linked to the loss of glacial ice cover in the Alps.
"Even if we see that there is a slight downward trend - around 15 to 20cm since 2001 - of this snowy summit of Mont Blanc, climatologists and glaciologists tell us that it takes approximately 50 years of measurement to be able to draw conclusions on possible global warming at this altitude of 4,800 metres," said Mr Borrel.
He added that the ice cover at the summit of Europe tended to experience variation, depending on wind and precipitation.