April 15, 2012

expert reaction to Himalayan glacier measurements

Glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range, located at the intersection of China, India and Pakistan, have been stable despite global mass loss of mountain glaciers, according to a paper published in Nature Geoscience.

Dr Stephan Harrison, Associate Professor in Quaternary Science at the University of Exeter, said:

“This research shows that Karakoram glaciers have been stable over a recent 8 year period when most glaciers globally have been in recession. Such observations don’t challenge climate science, which is based upon nearly 200 years of basic physics, but they do show us that there is considerable variability in the climate and in the behaviour of systems like glaciers which respond to climate. This is especially true over short time periods and at the local scale. Many Karakoram glaciers are also unusual in several ways. They are covered with thick layers of rock debris which means that their patterns of melting and accumulation are driven by changes in debris supply as well as by changes in the local climate, and much of their accumulation comes from avalanches from high mountains surrounding them. Overall the impact of melting glaciers such as these on sea level rise is known to be negligible, but it does mean that there is much more to be learnt about exactly how the world’s glaciers will respond to continued global warming.”

‘Slight mass gain of Karakoram glaciers in the early twenty-first century’ by Julie Gardelle1 et al., published in Nature Geoscience on Sunday 15 April.