Geographical object in the Central highlands of Iceland, is a former glacier “Okjökull”, now known officially as just “Ok”. The word “jökull”, which means “glacier” no longer relevant, because ice isn’t here anymore. To capture this historic event, 18 Aug 2019 government held a semblance of a funeral ceremony with the installation of a memorial plaque on the site of a former glacier.
In 1901 the glacier Okjökull depicted on the map of Iceland as a powerful band of ice with an area of 38 sq. km. But by 1945, its dimensions had shrunk to a mere 5 sq. km., and to the 2005-th ice there actually left. Some hope for the restoration of the glacier still existed, but in 2014 scientists had to admit that Okjökull is completely gone. Now it’s just a volcano without ice — and the same fate likely awaits all the other glaciers of Iceland.
The idea of creating a memorial Board is of Snaer Andri Magnason, who believes that such a historic event should be properly recorded. Still this is the first in the history of the country when the glacier officially lost his status. Agreed with him the Prime Minister of Iceland Katrin Jakobsdottir and former high Commissioner of United Nations for human rights, Mary Robinson, co-authors of the project.
Ice on Earth is melting everywhere and all at an accelerating rate, one only Antarctica is losing up to 250 billion tons annually. Glaciers really turned into a “disappearing object”, and it is possible that after a few generations of students in school will learn about them only from archival records. It is estimated that Iceland, land of ice and geysers, while maintaining the current conditions will lose all of its glaciers within a maximum of 200 years.
Source — AP