GENEVA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Alpine glaciers will all but vanish by the end of the century if global warming is not halted, researchers at Zurich University warned on Monday.

    In the 1970s, about 5,150 Alpine glaciers covered a total area of 2,909 square kilometres. This represented a loss of about 35 percent of glacial area compared with 1850, according to a report published by glaciologist Michael Zemp and his team.

    But the meltdown has accelerated rapidly since the 1970s, resulting in a total loss of 50 percent of the 1850 area. And in the extraordinarily hot summer of 2003 alone, the volume of the remaining ice decreased by between 5 and 10 percent, the study said.

    According to the study, an increase in summer air temperature of one to five degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century is a plausible scenario.

    For each one degree Celsius increase in mean summer temperature, precipitation would have to increase by 25 percent to offset the glacial loss.

    "Our study shows that under such scenarios, the majority of alpine glaciers might disappear within the coming decades," said Zemp.

    His team concluded that with an increase in summer temperature of more than three degrees only the largest glaciers, such as the Aletsch in Switzerland and those on the highest mountain peaks could survive into the 22nd century.

    The scientific paper highlights the importance of the research, stating clearly that "rapidly shrinking glacier areas and increasing mass losses are clear signs of the atmospheric warming observed in the Alps during the last 150 years."

    The results of the study will be published on July 15 in the Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Enditem