An expedition to document the final days of Oceania's last tropical glaciers has captured the dramatic shrinkage of the 'eternity glaciers' in Indonesia's West Papua region. The once-mighty ice sheets on Puncak Jaya mountain have lost 95% of their area since 2002, according to the team from Project Pressure, an environmental charity.
Led by Danish explorer Klaus Thymann, the two-week expedition in November conducted a photogrammetric survey using drones and satellite positioning systems to create a 3D model of the mountain. The glaciers, known locally as 'eternal snow', have survived beyond earlier projections of disappearance by 2026 but are now a fraction of their original size.
“The ice will be gone: it's not a question of if, it's a question of when,” said Thymann. “And 'when' is coming very, very soon.” He described the experience as witnessing “planetary destruction on fast-forward”.
Indonesian researchers found that Papua's tropical glaciers lost 97% of their ice mass between 1980 and 2024, with four of six glaciers completely gone. A separate study using satellite imagery and digitised maps documented a decrease of over 99% since 1850. Both studies project the final two glaciers will disappear by the end of the decade.
“It is deeply saddening,” said Francine Hematang, lead author of the Indonesian study from Papua University. “This is the only tropical glacier in Indonesia and southeast Asia, and it continues to shrink at an alarming rate.” The loss has been attributed to fossil fuel pollution heating the planet, with global temperatures now about 1.4C above preindustrial levels.
