A researcher from Italy is feared dead after he fell into a stream and was carried by the water into a hole in the ice on Tuesday on Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska, the authorities said.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers said Wednesday afternoon that the man, whose name was not released, was with two other people when he fell. He was conducting research on the glacier.
“The two people he was traveling with could no longer see him once he fell into the opening,” the dispatch report said.
Though a technical ice rescue team was sent, “it was determined to be too dangerous to attempt to locate the missing man” because the hole, which was about two feet wide, was filled with rushing water.
Officials said that the man was a resident of Italy and that they were trying to notify his family there.
The Mendenhall Glacier is a dozen miles from the state capital, Juneau. The glaciers in this region are part of the Juneau Ice Field, a vast tract of interconnected ice that is melting twice as quickly as it did before 2010, scientists reported last year.
Alaska has warmed faster than the global average, and the fastest of any state, over the past century, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
More than 100 homes in Juneau were damaged last summer when Mendenhall Lake overflowed, pushing more water into the Mendenhall River, which flows through parts of Juneau.
Some streets of the capital, which has a population of more than 30,000 people, faced surges of four to six feet of water, though no deaths or injuries were reported.
Last month, the same glacial lake caused the Mendenhall River to surge to a record height.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit the glacier annually, most of them passengers from the cruise ships that stop at the Port of Juneau. They come to view a glacier that has thinned and retreated thousands of feet since the mid-1700s, according to satellite images from NASA.
Another man was found dead at the glacier this week. On Monday, the body of a tourist, Thomas Casey, 69, was found off a trail near the glacier, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Mr. Casey, a visitor from Arizona, had last been seen Saturday morning. The police said that they believed he died from injuries from a fall during a hike.
Rescuers, including dog teams, followed pings on his phone to find Mr. Casey at about 5 p.m. on Monday. His body will be sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office, state troopers said.
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
The post Researcher Is Feared Dead After Falling Into a Glacial Stream in Alaska appeared first on New York Times.
