Mer de Glace loses 3 metres in a year

FRANCE'S biggest glacier, the Mer de Glace on Mont Blanc, has lost more than three metres in depth in the past year because of global warming - and is receding three times faster than the previous year.

The glacier has been losing about a metre a year for the past 30 years, but it shed 3.61 metres from October 2014 to October this year, according to researchers at the Grenoble glacier research lab.

Researchers said the summer heatwave was a contributing factor, and lower-than-usual levels of snowfall between October and May.

They also found the Saint-Sorin glacier in the Savoie lost 3.31 metres of ice over the same period.

"This is an enormous loss," said researcher Christian Vincent, warning that at this rate some glaciers below 3,500 metres could disappear completely by 2100.