Recession and Morphological Changes of the Debris-Covered Milam Glacier in Gori Ganga Valley, Central Himalaya, India, Derived From Satellite Data

Frontiers in Environmental Science

M. P. S. Bisht¹  R. B. Singh²  Udo Schickhoff³  Suraj Mal⁴  Manish Mehta⁵ 

[1] CEN Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany;Centre for Glaciology, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India;Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India;;Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, >New Delhi, India;

关键词: Milam glacier;    Gori Ganga;    climate change;    morphological changes;    Himalaya;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fenvs.2019.00042

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

We analyzed the recession of the Milam glacier in the Gori Ganga valley, Uttarakhand Himalaya, using historical plane-table survey maps, topographical maps, Corona image (1968), Landsat 5 TM (1990), Landsat 7 ETM+ (2001), and Sentinel 2 (2017) satellite data. We estimate that the Milam glacier has receded by 1565.4 ± 20.6 m (31.9 ± 0.4 m a−1) over the period 1968–2017, while lower recession rate (21.1 ± 1.7 m a−1) was observed between 2001 and 2017. The Milam glacier lost 2.27 ± 0.06 km2 of its area from 1968 to 2017 due to recession. Two tributary glaciers detached from the main trunk between 1990 and 2017, which indicates glacier thinning and melting. The glacier recession also resulted in deformation of moraine ridges on either sides in lower ablation zone of Milam glacier, which is caused due to the removal of basal ice support caused by glacier melting.

【 授权许可】

Unknown