Svalbard glaciers lost their protective buffer in the mid-1980s and have been melting ever since
An extensive layer of firn ice once protected most of the archipelago's ice. But as that's lost, so are the glaciers.
The archipelago of Svalbard, a land of ice and polar bears, is found midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Its capital Longyearbyen on the main island of Spitsbergen is the world’s most northerly city, some 800 miles inside the Arctic Circle.
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