Hindu Kush Himalayan region contains 27% less ice than estimated: study
The Himalayas are often called the water towers of Asia because of the vast amount of water locked in the form of ice in thousands of glaciers there. But concerns relating to climate change have often put a question mark on future water availability from these glaciers. Now, a new study on ice thickness of glaciers has estimated that glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas might contain 27 per cent less ice than previously suggested.
Not just this, the region is expected to lose half of its present-day glacier area by 2060 and not 2070 when calculations are made based on the new thickness estimates. The warning comes in an international study on the world’s glaciers published in journal Nature Geoscience.
While previous studies focused on the shrinking of total glacier area, estimating ice thickness and its distribution is critical for projecting future changes and freshwater water availability from glaciers. In the new study, researchers used a combination of five thickness estimation models to provide an estimate for the ice thickness distribution of 215,000 glaciers outside the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Posted by admin
on Feb 14 2019. Filed under Climate change.
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