Previous data on the melting of Himalayan glaciers significantly underestimated the loss of ice mass. Between 2000 and 2020, the lakes in direct contact with the glaciers have increased in number by about 47 percent, in surface area by 33 percent, and in volume by 42 percent.
Himalayan glaciers have lost about 6.5 percent more mass in recent years than previously believed, according to a new study by a multinational research team with participation from the Graz University of Technology. This is evident from figures published in the journal “Nature Geoscience”, the Graz University of Technology announced.
To do this, the researchers combined satellite data over a longer period of time and measured glacial lakes, which have increased in volume and area. At the same time, this increase in glacial lake water meant a loss of about 2.7 gigatons of ice mass. That is about the weight of 570 million elephants.
Glacier mass loss underestimated by 65 percent in some cases
The calculations showed that the loss of mass of glaciers that flow into lakes has been underestimated by an average of about 6.5 percent. The loss in the central Himalayas was even 10 percent higher than the previous analysis, because that’s where glacial lakes grew fastest. A drastic special case is Lake Galong, where the loss of glacial mass was underestimated by as much as 65 percent.
The study suggests that the shrinking of glaciers terminating in glacial lakes is underestimated from a global perspective. It is estimated that about 211.5 gigatons or about 12 percent more ice mass has been lost to glaciers that flow into lakes than previously thought.
Source: Krone
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