The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India
We investigated area changes in glaciers covering an area of 200 km2 in the Tista basin, Sikkim, Eastern Indian Himalaya, between 1990 and 2010 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Indian Remote-sensing Satellite (IRS) images and related the changes to debris cover, supraglacial lakes and moraine-...
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International Glaciological Society
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ftunivzuerich:oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:86634 2024-09-15T18:15:42+00:00 The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India Basnett, Smriti Kulkarni, Anil V Bolch, Tobias 2013 application/pdf https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/86634/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/86634/1/2013_BolchT_BasnetAl13_JoG_DebrLakeGlacChaSikkim.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-86634 https://doi.org/10.3189/2013JoG12J184 eng eng International Glaciological Society https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/86634/1/2013_BolchT_BasnetAl13_JoG_DebrLakeGlacChaSikkim.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-86634 doi:10.3189/2013JoG12J184 urn:issn:0022-1430 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Basnett, Smriti; Kulkarni, Anil V; Bolch, Tobias (2013). The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India. Journal of Glaciology, 59(218):1035-1046. Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Journal Article PeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2013 ftunivzuerich https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-8663410.3189/2013JoG12J184 2024-07-31T00:01:49Z We investigated area changes in glaciers covering an area of 200 km2 in the Tista basin, Sikkim, Eastern Indian Himalaya, between 1990 and 2010 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Indian Remote-sensing Satellite (IRS) images and related the changes to debris cover, supraglacial lakes and moraine-dam lakes. The glaciers lost an area of 3.3`0.8% between 1989/90 and 2010. More detailed analysis revealed an area loss of 2.00 ` 0.82, 2.56 ` 0.61 and 2.28 ` 2.01 km2 for the periods 1989–97, 1997–2004/05 and 2004–2009/10, respectively. This indicates an accelerated retreat of glaciers after 1997. On further analysis, we observed (1) the formation and expansion of supraglacial lakes on many debris-covered glaciers and (2) the merging of these lakes over time, leading to the development of large moraine-dam lakes. We also observed that debris-covered glaciers with lakes lose a greater area than debris-covered glaciers without lakes and debris-free glaciers. The climatic data for 24 years (1987–2011), measured at the Gangtok meteorological station (1812 m a.s.l.), showed that the region experienced a 1.08C rise in the summer minimum temperature and a 2.08C rise in the winter minimum temperature, indicating hotter summers and warmer winters. There was no significant trend in the total annual precipitation. We find that glacier retreat is caused mainly by a temperature increase and that debris-covered glaciers can retreat at a faster rate than debris-free glaciers, if associated with lakes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivzuerich |
language |
English |
topic |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel |
spellingShingle |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Basnett, Smriti Kulkarni, Anil V Bolch, Tobias The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India |
topic_facet |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel |
description |
We investigated area changes in glaciers covering an area of 200 km2 in the Tista basin, Sikkim, Eastern Indian Himalaya, between 1990 and 2010 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Indian Remote-sensing Satellite (IRS) images and related the changes to debris cover, supraglacial lakes and moraine-dam lakes. The glaciers lost an area of 3.3`0.8% between 1989/90 and 2010. More detailed analysis revealed an area loss of 2.00 ` 0.82, 2.56 ` 0.61 and 2.28 ` 2.01 km2 for the periods 1989–97, 1997–2004/05 and 2004–2009/10, respectively. This indicates an accelerated retreat of glaciers after 1997. On further analysis, we observed (1) the formation and expansion of supraglacial lakes on many debris-covered glaciers and (2) the merging of these lakes over time, leading to the development of large moraine-dam lakes. We also observed that debris-covered glaciers with lakes lose a greater area than debris-covered glaciers without lakes and debris-free glaciers. The climatic data for 24 years (1987–2011), measured at the Gangtok meteorological station (1812 m a.s.l.), showed that the region experienced a 1.08C rise in the summer minimum temperature and a 2.08C rise in the winter minimum temperature, indicating hotter summers and warmer winters. There was no significant trend in the total annual precipitation. We find that glacier retreat is caused mainly by a temperature increase and that debris-covered glaciers can retreat at a faster rate than debris-free glaciers, if associated with lakes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Basnett, Smriti Kulkarni, Anil V Bolch, Tobias |
author_facet |
Basnett, Smriti Kulkarni, Anil V Bolch, Tobias |
author_sort |
Basnett, Smriti |
title |
The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India |
title_short |
The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India |
title_full |
The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India |
title_fullStr |
The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India |
title_full_unstemmed |
The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India |
title_sort |
influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in sikkim himalaya, india |
publisher |
International Glaciological Society |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/86634/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/86634/1/2013_BolchT_BasnetAl13_JoG_DebrLakeGlacChaSikkim.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-86634 https://doi.org/10.3189/2013JoG12J184 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Basnett, Smriti; Kulkarni, Anil V; Bolch, Tobias (2013). The influence of debris cover and glacial lakes on the recession of glaciers in Sikkim Himalaya, India. Journal of Glaciology, 59(218):1035-1046. |
op_relation |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/86634/1/2013_BolchT_BasnetAl13_JoG_DebrLakeGlacChaSikkim.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-86634 doi:10.3189/2013JoG12J184 urn:issn:0022-1430 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-8663410.3189/2013JoG12J184 |
_version_ |
1810453627834204160 |