Glacier Change, Concentration, and Elevation Effects in the Karakoram Himalaya, Upper Indus Basin
TLDR
In this paper, evidence of distinctive late and post-Little Ice Age glacier change in the Karakoram Himalaya and a recent, seemingly anomalous, expansion is presented.Abstract:
This paper seeks to explain evidence of distinctive late- and post-Little Ice Age glacier change in the Karakoram Himalaya and a recent, seemingly anomalous, expansion. Attention is directed to processes that support and concentrate glacier mass, including an all-year accumulation regime, avalanche nourishment, and effects related to elevation. Glacier basins have exceptional elevation ranges, and rockwalls make up the larger part of their area. However, more than 80% of the ice cover is concentrated between 4000 and 5500 m elevation. Classification into Turkestan-, Mustagh-, and Alpine-type glaciers is revisited to help identify controls over mass balance. Estimates of changes based on snowlines, equilibrium line altitudes, and accumulation area ratio are shown to be problematic. Extensive debris covers in ablation zone areas protect glacier tongues. They are relatively insensitive to climate change, and their importance for water supply has been exaggerated compared to clean and thinly covered ...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The state and fate of Himalayan glaciers
Tobias Bolch,Tobias Bolch,Anil V. Kulkarni,Andreas Kääb,Christian Huggel,Christian Huggel,Frank Paul,J G Cogley,Holger Frey,Holger Frey,Jeffrey S. Kargel,Koji Fujita,M. Scheel,M. Scheel,Samjwal Ratna Bajracharya,Markus Stoffel,Markus Stoffel +16 more
TL;DR: The contemporary evolution of glaciers in the Himalayan region is reviewed, including those of the less well sampled region of the Karakoram to the Northwest, in order to provide a current, comprehensive picture of how they are changing.
Journal ArticleDOI
Contrasting patterns of early twenty-first-century glacier mass change in the Himalayas
TL;DR: Satellite laser altimetry and a global elevation model are used to show widespread glacier wastage in the eastern, central and south-western parts of the HKKH during 2003–08 and show indirect evidence of a complex pattern of glacial responses in reaction to heterogeneous climate change signals.
Journal ArticleDOI
Consistent increase in High Asia's runoff due to increasing glacier melt and precipitation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a large-scale, high-resolution cryospheric hydrological model to quantify the upstream hydrologogical regimes of the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween and Mekong rivers and analyzed the impacts of climate change on future water availability in these basins using the latest climate model ensemble.
Journal ArticleDOI
Slight mass gain of Karakoram glaciers in the early twenty-first century
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of the regional mass balance of Karakoram glaciers by comparison of digital elevation models from 1999 to 2008 reveals a small glacier mass gain in the area.
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Brief Communication: Contending estimates of 2003–2008 glacier mass balance over the Pamir–Karakoram–Himalaya
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present glacier thickness changes over the entire Pamir-Karakoram-Himalaya arc based on ICESat satellite altimetry data for 2003-2008.
References
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Book
Glaciers and glaciation.
Douglas I. Benn,David J.A. Evans +1 more
TL;DR: Glaciers and Glaciation as discussed by the authors is a classic textbook for all students of glaciation, and it has established a reputation as a comprehensive and essential resource for students of glaciers.
Book
The Little Ice Age
TL;DR: The evidence for the Little Ice Age, the most important fluctuation in global climate in historical times, is most dramatically represented by the advance of mountain glaciers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and their retreat since about 1850 as discussed by the authors.
Little Ice Age
TL;DR: The Neoglacial period as discussed by the authors is the most extensive recent period of mountain glacier expansion and is conventionally defined as the 16th-mid 19th century period during which European climate was most strongly impacted.
Journal ArticleDOI
Spatially variable response of Himalayan glaciers to climate change affected by debris cover
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of remotely sensed frontal changes and surface velocities from glaciers in the greater Himalaya between 2000 and 2008 shows large regional variability in the responses of Himalayan glaciers to climate change.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Karakoram Anomaly? Glacier Expansion and the `Elevation Effect,' Karakoram Himalaya
TL;DR: In the late 1990s widespread evidence of glacier expansion was found in the central Karakoram, in contrast to a worldwide decline of mountain glaciers as mentioned in this paper, and the expansions were almost exclusively in glacier basins from the highest parts of the range and developed quickly after decades of decline.