THE rate glaciers are melting at in the Himalayas is being accelerated by lakes formed by glacial retreat, new research led by the University of St Andrews has found.
The study, published in Nature: Scientific Reports, concluded that the glaciers which have flowed into the lakes in recent decades are retreating and thinning at a greater rate than any other glaciers in the Himalayas. They are therefore likely to be driving the accelerating mass loss from the region.
These glaciers are responsible for as much as 30% of the ice loss in different parts of the mountain range, despite comprising just 10 to 15% of the total glacier population.
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The behaviour of glaciers provides the clearest indication of climatic change in high mountain regions. Long-term atmospheric warming has caused the recession of glaciers across the Himalayas.
Meltwater from glaciers in this region sustains the flow of river systems on which hundreds of millions of people depend for their basic needs.
Not all the meltwater instantly drains to downstream catchments and thousands of glacial lakes have developed and continue to expand high in the mountains. Until this study, the influence of glacial lakes on glacier behaviour has not been thoroughly investigated in the Himalayas, despite the rapid increase in lake area and number.
Dr Owen King, of the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews, said: “Further enhanced mass loss is very likely should the increases in the total number and area of glacial lakes continue.”
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