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Graph of the Day: Glacier retreat, area reduction, and mass balance change for Himalaya glaciers

Friday, August 31, 2012 7:50

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(Before It's News)

Desdemona Despair

a, Glacier retreat for 82 Himalaya glaciers (Supplementary Table S4). b, Area reduction for 7,090 glaciers (Supplementary Tables S2 and S3 and Fig. S1). c, Mass balance for 15 glaciers (Supplementary Table S5). Glaciers are categorized into seven regions and marked clockwise with Roman numerals in a–c.

ABSTRACT: The Tibetan Plateau and surroundings contain the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions¹. These glaciers are at the headwaters of many prominent Asian rivers and are largely experiencing shrinkage², which affects the water discharge of large rivers such as the Indus^{3, 4}. The resulting potential geohazards^{5, 6} merit a comprehensive study of glacier status in the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings. Here we report on the glacier status over the past 30 years by investigating the glacial retreat of 82 glaciers, area reduction of 7,090 glaciers and mass-balance change of 15 glaciers. Systematic differences in glacier status are apparent from region to region, with the most intensive shrinkage in the Himalayas (excluding the Karakorum) characterized by the greatest reduction in glacial length and area and the most negative mass balance. The shrinkage generally decreases from the Himalayas to the continental interior and is the least in the eastern Pamir, characterized by the least glacial retreat, area reduction and positive mass balance. In addition to rising temperature, decreased precipitation in the Himalayas and increasing precipitation in the eastern Pamir accompanied by different atmospheric circulation patterns is probably driving these systematic differences.