A scientist from the local area found on Thursday that a glacier in the region of the Italian Alps was coated with snow that was colored pink.
The emergence of the pink snow also described as “watermelon snow,” is because of the presence of algae.
Biagio Di Mauro, a researcher, stated that the color is immensely more powerful than the usual existence of snow on the peaks, despite pink snow being a very standard color in the Alps in summer (and it has also been witnessed by people in different places throughout the world).
He said that the light snowfall and high atmospheric temperatures of this season provide the ideal atmosphere for the algae to sprout.
He mentioned to The Guardian that the involvement of hikers, as well as ski-lifts, could also have had an influence on the production of algae and encouraged it.
Although, while the result might be good and fascinating to look at for the audience but Di Mauro mentioned to CNN that it is terrible for the glacier and nature, as darker snow retains more heat and thus starts melting faster than usual.
Although the pink snow is still being examined by Di Mauro, he claims a snow algae named Chlamydomonas nivalis is responsible for the growth of algae.
In May, researchers attributed the Antarctic green snow glaciers to a rise in algae as well. Di Mauro tweeted that the correlation between algae as well as climate change is still to be demonstrated and examined further.
