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Changes in ice volume of the Ningchan No.1 Glacier, China, from 1972 to 2014, as derived from in situ measurements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

BO CAO*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
BAOTIAN PAN
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
WEIJIN GUAN
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
JIE WANG
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
ZHENLING WEN
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
*
Correspondence: Bo Cao <caobo@lzu.edu.cn>
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Abstract

Global climate change is causing widespread glacier retreat, with many small glaciers disappearing from the world's mountain ranges. We obtained the annual mass balance of a small glacier (the Ningchan No.1 Glacier) located on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, from the years 2010 to 2015 using glaciological and geodetic methods. We also measured the glacier's thickness in 2014 using ground-penetrating radar. Employing topographical maps and ZY-3 images, we obtained Digital Elevation Models for 1972 and 2014. Our results showed that the mean annual mass balance from 2010 to 2015 was ~−0.9 ± 0.5 m w.e. The mean equilibrium line altitude was ~4680 m in the period 2010–15, which exceeds the maximum elevation of the glacier. The glacier has lost area and mass across its elevation range. The mean ice thickness was 24.0 ± 2.5 m in 2014. From 1972 to 2014, the glacier's area shrank from 0.77 ± 0.05 to 0.39 ± 0.04 km2, and the ice volume decreased by (14.96 ± 0.97) × 106 m3, equivalent to (12.72 ± 0.82) × 106 t w.e. over the same period.

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Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017
Figure 0

Fig. 1. (a–c) Location of Ningchan No.1 Glacier on maps of (a) the Tibetan Plateau, (b) the Qilian Mountains (Mt. Qilian) and (c) the Lenglongling Mountains (Mt. LLL); (d) an overview of Ningchan No.1 Glacier as shown on satellite imagery in 2014, with the stake network. A 50 m contour interval shows the glacier surface altitude. NC01 is almost free of debris (e, f); (g) the glacier surface altitude, mass balance and surface velocity measurements made using dGPS; and (h) measurement of snow density.

Figure 1

Fig. 2. dGPS measurement tracks and validation points (red) for the years 2010, 2013 and 2015. The pink polygon is the subset area for comparing geodetic and glaciological mass balance.

Figure 2

Fig. 3. (a–e) Five years’ worth of annual point mass-balance values as a function of altitude derived from the field measurements collected on NC01. Linear regression lines were used to derive the annual glacier-wide mass balance B. (f) Annual (blue histograms) and cumulative (red lines with red dots) mass balances of NC01 from 2010 to 2015.

Figure 3

Fig. 4. NC01 glacier GPR measurements. (a) Red points indicate the GPR measurement locations. (b) The glacier thickness distribution for this glacier. (c) Mean annual surface velocities measured during the period 2010–2015. All measurements have been averaged. The blue and red lines represent cross-sections (CS_4340, CS_4370 and CS_4430 at 4340, 4370 and 4430 m a.s.l., respectively). The flow direction is shown by red arrows.

Figure 4

Fig. 5. Ice depths and surface topographies of the three main cross-sections CS_4340, CS_4370 and CS_4430. The graphs show the bedrock altitude a.s.l. (red line) and modern glacier surface altitude a.s.l. (green line) along the profile path. All profile locations are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 5

Fig. 6. The DEMs for glacier NC01 in (a) 1972, as derived from topographic maps; (b) 2014, as derived from ZY-3 images and (c) change in altitude from 1972 to 2014.

Figure 6

Table 1. Ice fluxes, as inferred from the kinematic method and from the mean annual surface mass-balance datasets for each cross-section

Figure 7

Fig. 7. Annual surface mass-balance values compared with meteorological values (summer air temperature and MAP) recorded at the Menyuan station.