Ice Loss in the Ablation Area of a Himalayan Glacier; Studies on Miar Glacier, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan

Abstract

One of the main aims of the Snow and Ice Hydrology Project, a joint Canada-Pakistan endeavour, is to estimate ice loss in the ablation areas of glaciers in order to predict with greater confidence stream flow in the headwaters of the Indus River. To this end, Miar Glacier, located in the central Karakoram Range, north of Gilgit, was intensively studied during the summers of 1986 and 1987. Measurements of glacier mass balance by the monitoring of accumulation and ablation at stake locations is very difficult in the Himalyan environment. It is usually almost impossible to reach elevations above the equilibrium line without major effort, and always very difficult once there to make meaningful measurements; the ablation areas are often heavily crevassed and/or debris-covered, and this poses difficult sampling problems. The method used in this study was to monitor annual surface movement on a cross-profile as near as possible to the equilibrium line. The measurements, obtained in conjunction with depth soundings made on the same profile, allow the annual ice flux through the cross-profile to be calculated. If an approximately steady-state glacier is assumed, it would be expected that this flux would be roughly equivalent to the rate of ice loss below the profile. The movements of wooden stakes drilled into the glacier were monitored throughout each of the summers and, since two of the stakes survived the intervening winter, this allowed calculation of annual movement. Distances between the crests of ogives were also surveyed, providing an independent assessment of glacier movement. Depth measurements by radio-echo sounder were successfully made in the summer of 1987, showing maximum ice depths of 550 m. The annual ice flux through the transverse profile was estimated as 5.67 × 107 m3, which corresponds to a mean annual ice loss from the glacier surface below the profile of 8.10 m of ice.