Impact of glacio-morphological parameters in the glacier change: A case study of parts of Western Himalaya, India.

Abstract:

The Himalayas possess one of the largest resources of snow and ice, which act as a huge freshwater reservoir. Monitoring the glaciers is important to assess the overall reservoir health. In last few decades the most of the mountainous glaciers have undergone negative mass balance and terminal recessions, unlike the advancing glaciers. In this investigation, glaciers of Western Himalaya have been monitored since 1962 and variability in retreat was identified within the region. Thus, further analysis about significant parameters was taken into account to understand the relationship between glacio-morphological factors and change in glacial area. Initially change in areal extent of glaciers was derived for two time frames (1962-2001/02 and 2001/02-2010/11). The study comprised of 324 glaciers for the monitoring period of 1962-2001/02. A loss in glacial area was observed as 11% for this period. Many of these glaciers (238) were further monitored between 2001/02 and 2010/11. These glaciers showed a loss of 1.1%. The annual deglaciation has been found higher during the period of 1962-2001/02, which means rate of melting is less in this region in latest decade. Another observation in deglaciation was found spatial and temporal variability in glaciers which was addressed using glacio-morphic parameters. Areal extent of glaciers was observed to be having significant role on rate of glacial shrinkage. The another important parameter is equilibrium line altitude, i.e. the glaciers located below ELA have experienced 4.6% of deglaciation for the time frame 2001/02 – 2010/11 where as it was found to be 1.1% for the glaciers occurring above ELA. Moreover, glaciers located at lower altitude and having gentle slope show more area retreat. The results of area retreat in debris covered and debris free glaciers supports that the glaciers covered by debris retard ice melting at some extent. 158 glaciers were observed having no debris cover which shows 14% of loss in surface area. In glaciers having 40 % debris cover, 8% of deglaciation was observed. However, orientation of glaciers did not show any considerable pattern on glacial change. The study inferences that the glaciers which are debris free, located below mean altitude of snowline, smaller in size, gentle slope,and located at lower altitude has experienced higher rate of shrinkage.