A scientist monitoring the condition of the Hinman Glacier located in the US state of Washington between the peaks of Mount Rainier and the Peak Glacier says it has completely disappeared after being there for thousands of years, and galloping climate change has dealt it the final blow.

Experts recently found that up to half of the world's glaciers could be lost by the end of the century, even if global climate targets are met. Maury Pelto of Nicholls College for "CNN" stated that he has been visiting and observing Mount Hinman for 40 years. When he visited the area with his team in 2022, he saw that the glacier had completely disappeared.

"It's completely gone." "This was the biggest glacier in this part of the mountain range – now it's gone," Pelto said.

Environmental expert David Sheen of the University of Washington says that during the retreat of glaciers, smaller areas of ice can form in depressions that are less sensitive to extreme temperatures. But these ice sheets are often too thin to slide down, which is an important criterion for classifying an ice mass as a glacier.

Shin noted that there is still some ice in the hollows in the area, but that it is no longer a glacier and that it too could disappear within the next ten years. Although glaciologists do not know the exact age of the Hinman Glacier, Pelto found evidence that it was there before the eruption of Mount Mazama, or that it has existed for more than 7.000 years.

"There is still hope. In order for the glacier to form and sustain itself, it needs a higher average accumulation of snowfall. In that case, he could recover," Pelto said.