Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery
ABSTRACT The West Kunlun Shan lie close to, or are perhaps part of, two significant glaciological phenomena – the High Mountain Asia surge ‘supercluster’ and the Karakoram Anomaly. However, glaciological studies, and particularly surge studies, in the range are limited. Here, we extend the database...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2018.94 2024-09-15T18:15:37+00:00 Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery CHUDLEY, THOMAS R. WILLIS, IAN C. 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143018000941 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 65, issue 249, page 1-12 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 journal-article 2018 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 2024-08-07T04:03:43Z ABSTRACT The West Kunlun Shan lie close to, or are perhaps part of, two significant glaciological phenomena – the High Mountain Asia surge ‘supercluster’ and the Karakoram Anomaly. However, glaciological studies, and particularly surge studies, in the range are limited. Here, we extend the database of known surges in the region using Landsat imagery and cross-correlation feature tracking. We examine 88 glaciers larger than 1 km 2 in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang, China, and find evidence of nine surges occurring between 1972 and 2017. Glaciers display low active phase velocities (~0.2–1.5 km a −1 ) that show seasonal acceleration in the summer, active phase periods as short as 2 years, and build-up and deceleration phases of months--years. Although these observations display characteristics indicative of both the classic hydrological and thermal switch mechanisms, the surging observed displays a close resemblance to that in the adjacent Karakoram ranges. Furthermore, the majority of the surges occur clustered at the end of a decadal-scale warming period, corroborating previously proposed causal links between climate and surging in the Karakoram. We suggest that the two regions should be considered part of one larger system when considering surge dynamics in High Mountain Asia. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 65 249 1 12 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT The West Kunlun Shan lie close to, or are perhaps part of, two significant glaciological phenomena – the High Mountain Asia surge ‘supercluster’ and the Karakoram Anomaly. However, glaciological studies, and particularly surge studies, in the range are limited. Here, we extend the database of known surges in the region using Landsat imagery and cross-correlation feature tracking. We examine 88 glaciers larger than 1 km 2 in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang, China, and find evidence of nine surges occurring between 1972 and 2017. Glaciers display low active phase velocities (~0.2–1.5 km a −1 ) that show seasonal acceleration in the summer, active phase periods as short as 2 years, and build-up and deceleration phases of months--years. Although these observations display characteristics indicative of both the classic hydrological and thermal switch mechanisms, the surging observed displays a close resemblance to that in the adjacent Karakoram ranges. Furthermore, the majority of the surges occur clustered at the end of a decadal-scale warming period, corroborating previously proposed causal links between climate and surging in the Karakoram. We suggest that the two regions should be considered part of one larger system when considering surge dynamics in High Mountain Asia. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
CHUDLEY, THOMAS R. WILLIS, IAN C. |
spellingShingle |
CHUDLEY, THOMAS R. WILLIS, IAN C. Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
author_facet |
CHUDLEY, THOMAS R. WILLIS, IAN C. |
author_sort |
CHUDLEY, THOMAS R. |
title |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_short |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_full |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_fullStr |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_full_unstemmed |
Glacier surges in the north-west West Kunlun Shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 Landsat imagery |
title_sort |
glacier surges in the north-west west kunlun shan inferred from 1972 to 2017 landsat imagery |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143018000941 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 65, issue 249, page 1-12 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.94 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
65 |
container_issue |
249 |
container_start_page |
1 |
op_container_end_page |
12 |
_version_ |
1810453481618669568 |