Photo from open sources

The ice also became faster to melt.

Scientists in Italy are investigating the mysterious appearance of pink snow on the glaciers in the Alps. This color is caused by algae that accelerate the effects of climate change.

The exact origin of the algae is unknown, but Italian researchers believe that the pink snow of the glacier Presena, probably caused by plants from Greenland, writes nv.ua.

“Algae is not dangerous, it is a natural phenomenon that occurs during spring and summer periods at middle latitudes, but also at the poles,” said Biagio Di Mauro of the National research Council of Italy, who has previously studied the algae on the glacier Mortars in Switzerland.

The plant, known as Ancylonema nordenskioeldii, present in the so-called dark zone of Greenland, where the ice is melting. Typically, the ice reflects more than 80 percent of the sun’s radiation back into the atmosphere, but when algae start growing, they darken the ice, so it absorbs heat and melts faster.

As soon as the ice melts faster, there are more algae that add red tints to the white ice in Passo Gavia at the height of 2618 meters.

“All that darkens the snow causes it to melt, because it speeds up the absorption of radiation. We are trying to quantify the impact of other phenomena beyond the human, to the overheating of the Earth. The presence of tourists and the lifts can also have an impact on the algae,” said Di Mauro.