This week, a group of biologists and geographers have ascended to the Aneto glacier, the largest in Spain, to study a type of black mucus that is appearing on the surface of the ice. They are cryoconites, a microcosm of bacteria, archaea and dust, which is one more marker that the glacier is in a terminal state. These black spots accumulate heat and increase ice melting, already severely punished after two years of record-breaking summer temperatures.
