Iceland's Okjökull glacier officially declared dead from climate change

Recent satellite images reveal the severe impact of climate change on Iceland's Okjökull, the first glacier officially declared dead due to human activity. The photos, taken 33 years apart, show the glacier's drastic disappearance from the Ok volcano’s summit. In 1901, Okjökull covered about 15 square miles, but by 1986, that area shrank to less than 1 square mile. By 2019, the glacier had further reduced to under 0.4 square miles, according to NASA. Scientists declared the glacier dead in 2014 after noting it had stopped moving due to extreme thinning. A memorial service was held in August 2019, attended by around 100 people, where a plaque was placed to mark its loss. The inscription warned that Okjökull is just the beginning, predicting that all glaciers in Iceland could follow this fate within the next 200 years. At the time, the atmospheric carbon dioxide level was measured at 415 parts per million. As of March 2025, that level has risen to over 428 ppm. In 2023, Iceland established the world’s first iceberg graveyard to honor glaciers that are dead or critically endangered, according to the United Nations. This includes several glaciers from around the world, like the Anderson Glacier in Washington, which was declared dead in 2015.