Glacier changes in the Pascua-Lama region, Chilean Andes (29° S): recent mass balance and 50 yr surface area variations

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Rabatel, A., Castebrunet, Hélène, Favier, V., Nicholson, L., Kinnard, C.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Météo-France, Institut für Geographie Innsbruck, Universität Innsbruck Innsbruck, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Aridas (CEAZA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; Pacific; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01871525; https://hal.science/hal-01871525/document; https://hal.science/hal-01871525/file/tcd-4-2307-2010-print.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-1029-2011

International audience Since 2003, a monitoring program has been conducted on several glaciers and glacierets in the Pascua-Lama region of the Chilean Andes (29 • S/70 • W; 5000 m a.s.l.), permitting the study of glaciological processes on ice-bodies in a subtropical, arid, high-elevation area where no measurements were previously available. In this paper 5 we present: (i) 6 years of glaciological surface mass-balance measurements from 4 ice-bodies in the area, including a discussion of the nature of the studied glaciers and glacierets and characterization of the importance of winter mass-balance to annual mass-balance variability; and (ii) changes in surface-area of 20 ice-bodies in the region since 1955, reconstructed from aerial photographs and satellite images, which 10 show that ice-bodies have lost 44 ± 21% of their 1955 surface-area, and that the rate of surface-area shrinkage increased in the late 20th century. From these datasets we present an interpretation of inter-decadal glacier changes, which appear to be linked to El Niño Southern Oscillation and to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.