Presena Glacier Covered with Tarps

• 22 Jun 2020

Why in News

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 metres of the glacier was covered.

Key Points

• Covering of the Glacier:
  
  • Tarpaulin sheets (tarps) are being laid over 1,00,000 sq metres 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.

Source: IE