Scientists find extensive glacial retreat in Mount Everest region

Members of the team conducting these studies will present their findings on May 14 at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancun, Mexico – a scientific conference organized and co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union.

Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent in the last 50 years and the snowline has shifted upward by 180 meters (590 feet), according to Sudeep Thakuri, who is leading the research as part of his PhD graduate studies at the University of Milan in Italy.

Glaciers smaller than one square kilometer are disappearing the fastest and have experienced a 43 percent decrease in surface area since the 1960s. Because the glaciers are melting faster than they are replenished by ice and snow, they are revealing rocks and debris that were previously hidden deep under the ice. These debris-covered sections of the glaciers have increased by about 17 percent since the 1960s, according to Thakuri. The ends of the glaciers have also retreated by an average of 400 meters since 1962, his team found.

The researchers suspect that the decline of snow and ice in the Everest region is from human-generated greenhouse gases altering global climate. However, they have not yet established a firm connection between the mountains’ changes and climate change, Thakuri said.

He and his team determined the extent of glacial change on Everest and the surrounding 1,148 square kilometer (713 square mile) Sagarmatha National Park by compiling satellite imagery and topographic maps and reconstructing the glacial history. Their statistical analysis shows that the majority of the glaciers in the national park are retreating at an increasing rate, Thakuri said.

To evaluate the temperature and precipitation patterns in the area, Thakuri and his colleagues have been analyzing hydro-meteorological data from the Nepal Climate Observatory stations and Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The researchers found that the Everest region has undergone a 0.6 degree Celsius (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature and 100 millimeter (3.9 inches) decrease in precipitation during the pre-monsoon and winter months since 1992.

In subsequent research, Thakuri plans on exploring the climate-glacier relationship further with the aim of integrating the glaciological, hydrological and climatic data to understand the behavior of the hydrological cycle and future water availability.

“The Himalayan glaciers and ice caps are considered a water tower for Asia since they store and supply water downstream during the dry season,” said Thakuri. “Downstream populations are dependent on the melt water for agriculture, drinking, and power production.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Water Research Institute-Italian National Research Council are funding this research.

Notes for Journalists

The researchers on this study of the Mount Everest region will present a poster about their work on Tuesday morning, 14 May 2013, at the Meeting of the Americas. The meeting is taking place from 14-17 May at the Cancún Center, located at Blvd. Kukulkan Km 9, Zona Hotelera, in Cancún, Mexico. For more information for members of the news media about the meeting, please go to http://moa.agu.org/2013/media-center/ or contact Sarah Charley, scharley@agu.org, +1 (202) 777-7516.

Below is the abstract of the poster, which is being presented from 8:00 AM – 12:20 PM local Cancún time (Central Daylight Time, UTC/GMT – 5 hours), in the Gran Cancún Poster Hall (Cancún Center) as part of session C21B. “Cryosphere in a Warming Climate: Changes, Impacts, and Adaptation / Posters”
(Convener(s): Ninglian Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Mark Serreze (NSIDC)):

TITLE: Glacier response to climate trend and climate variability in Mt. Everest region (Nepal)

PRESENTATION TYPE: Assigned by Committee

CURRENT SECTION: Cryosphere (C)

CURRENT SESSION: C02. Cryosphere in a warming climate: Changes, Impacts and Adaptation

AUTHORS (FIRST NAME, LAST NAME): Sudeep Thakuri1, 2, Franco Salerno2, 3, Nicolas Guyennon2, Gaetano Viviano2, 3, Claudio Smiraglia1, 3, Carlo D’Agata1, Gianni Tartari2, 3

INSTITUTIONS (ALL): 1. Graduate School of Earth, Environment and Biodiversity, University of Milan, Milan, MB, Italy.

2. Water Research Institute, National Research Council , Brugherio, MB, Italy.

3. Ev-K2-CNR Committee, Bergamo, BG, Italy.

ABSTRACT BODY: This study is conducted with the aim of coupling the climatic dynamics with glaciers variations. The glaciers in the Mt. Everest region in Nepal Himalaya are characterized by the debris-mantle in most of their ablation zone and are controlled by the south-Asian summer monsoon and precipitation due to mid-latitude westerly. We analyzed variations in glacier surface and snowline altitude for the glaciers/ice mass in the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (area: 1148 km2), using cartography and remote imaging since 1950s to 2011 and uncertainties associated, providing a longest time series of glacier variations in this region. The glacier surface area had loss of 14.3±5.9 % (0.27 % yr-1) from 396.2 km2 to 339.5 km2 in 1958 to 2011 with the loss by 0.12 % yr-1 in 1958-75 and 0.70 % yr-1 in recent years. The smaller glaciers with

Contact information for the researchers:
Sudeep Thakuri: Email, thakuri@irsa.cnr.it