A joint Indian-Chinese team of scientists have announced their plans to survey Himalayan glaciers that are feared to be rapidly melting. Glaciers are the second largest supply of freshwater in the world. In recent decades, international glaciologists have raised concern about glacial melting, also known as glacier retreat, as a result of global warming. The massive Himalayan glaciers appear to be melting at an alarming rate, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people living in China and the Indian subcontinent.
Glacier Retreat in the Himalayas
The Himalayas have the largest concentrations of glaciers outside the polar region. They feed numerous mountain lakes in Nepal and Bhutan as well as seven Asian rivers: the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Thanlwin, Yangtze, and Yellow Rivers. The short-term result of glacial melting in the Himalayas has been flooding and landslides, which claim approximately 400 lives each year in Nepal. However, scientists fear that in future decades the water level in these rivers could decline sharply, leading to severe water shortages and threatening an agricultural region that feeds over one billion people.
Scientists will Survey Glaciers for Melting
The two expeditions, announced on December 21st, will begin in September of 2007 under the leadership of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and China's Institute of Geology and Geophysics. The scientific team will attempt to measure glacial retreat around Mount Gang Rinpoche and Mount Loinbo Kangri, which are the sources of the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra Rivers. Neither area has been surveyed for nearly a century.
Positive numbers indicate glacial thinning.
Source: globalwarmingart.com
RELATED LINKS:
An Overview of Glaciers, Glacier Retreat, and Subsequent Impacts in Nepal, India and China, a report by World Wildlife Fund International
