NYT: Glaciers in Retreat

[RedEarth]

At nearly 13,000 feet above sea level, in the shadow of a sharp Himalayan peak, a wall of black ice oozes in the sunshine. A tumbling stone breaks the silence of the mountains, or water gurgles under the ground, a sign that the glacier is melting from inside. Where it empties out — scientists call it the snout — a noisy, frothy stream rushes down to meet the river Ganges.

D.P. Dobhal, a glaciologist who has spent the last three years climbing and poking the Chorabari glacier, stands at the edge of the snout and points ahead. Three years ago, the snout was roughly 90 feet farther away. On a map drawn in 1962, it was plotted 860 feet from here. Mr. Dobhal marked the spot with a Stonehenge-like pile of rocks.

Mr. Dobhal’s steep and solitary quest — to measure the changes in the glacier’s size and volume — points to a looming worldwide concern, with particularly serious repercussions for India and its neighbors. The thousands of glaciers studded across 1,500 miles of the Himalayas make up the savings account of South Asia’s water supply, feeding more than a dozen major rivers and sustaining a billion people downstream. Their apparent retreat threatens to bear heavily on everything from the region’s drinking water supply to agricultural production to disease and floods.

Indian glaciers are among the least studied in the world, lacking the decades of data that scientists need to deduce trends. Nevertheless, the nascent research offers a snapshot of the consequences of global warming for this country and raises vital questions about how India will respond to them.

largest in the area, to be retreating by 170 feet a year during the 1990s. Another glacier that Mr. Dobhal has tracked, known as Dokriani, lost 20 percent of its size in three decades. Between 1991 and 1995, its snout inched back 55 feet each year.

watch the video here........

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/science/earth/17glacier.html?ei=5089&en=f5395c3a8047e963&ex=1342324800&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

[XemaSab]

1. Stupid question:

If the glaciers weren't melting, wouldn't there be less flow in the rivers?

Either way around, when the glaciers are gone these rivers will get much flashier... :(

[NNadir]

4. This is very true.

However in many places, so much water is now withdrawn from the rivers for irrigation, the opposite problem is being obtained.

The Ganges, one of the major Himalaya fed rivers has had much of its water diverted for many years now. Most of it evaporates in rice fields. In effect, the glaciers are being mined.

[phantom power]

6. glaciers/snowpack have historically acted as time-release reservoirs

They accumulate water over the winter, and then release it via melting in the summer, where it is used by humans, riparian wildlife, etc. The real disaster will come when they're finally gone, and the summer melt-water doesn't come down from the mountains.

Ever.

[Rydz777]

2. At last something is in retreat. The "surge" must be working. eom

[donsu]

3. this is nothing to joke about

nt

[XemaSab]

5. If you can't joke about the extinction of all human life, well...

:P