The Cryosphere

Mass loss on Himalayan glacier endangers water resources

  1. Natalie M. Kehrwald1,
  2. Lonnie G. Thompson1,
  3. Yao Tandong2,
  4. Ellen Mosley-Thompson1,
  5. Ulrich Schotterer3,
  6. Vasily Alfimov4,
  7. Jürg Beer5,
  8. Jost Eikenberg6,
  9. Mary E. Davis1

Article first published online: 22 NOV 2008

DOI: 10.1029/2008GL035556

Issue

Geophysical Research Letters

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Information

How to Cite

Kehrwald, N. M., L. G. Thompson, Y. Tandong, E. Mosley-Thompson, U. Schotterer, V. Alfimov, J. Beer, J. Eikenberg, and M. E. Davis (2008), Mass loss on Himalayan glacier endangers water resources, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L22503, doi:10.1029/2008GL035556.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Byrd Polar Research Center, School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

  2. 2

    Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

  3. 3

    Division of Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

  4. 4

    Ion Beam Physics, Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

  5. 5

    Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland

  6. 6

    Division for Radiation Protection and Waste Management, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 22 NOV 2008
  2. Article first published online: 22 NOV 2008
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 21 OCT 2008
  4. Manuscript Revised: 24 SEP 2008
  5. Manuscript Received: 1 AUG 2008

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Keywords:

  • glacier;
  • Himalaya;
  • radiometric

[1] Ice cores drilled from glaciers around the world generally contain horizons with elevated levels of beta radioactivity including 36Cl and 3H associated with atmospheric thermonuclear bomb testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Ice cores collected in 2006 from Naimona'nyi Glacier in the Himalaya (Tibet) lack these distinctive marker horizons suggesting no net accumulation of mass (ice) since at least 1950. Naimona'nyi is the highest glacier (6050 masl) documented to be losing mass annually suggesting the possibility of similar mass loss on other high-elevation glaciers in low and mid-latitudes under a warmer Earth scenario. If climatic conditions dominating the mass balance of Naimona'nyi extend to other glaciers in the region, the implications for water resources could be serious as these glaciers feed the headwaters of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra Rivers that sustain one of the world's most populous regions.

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