Ice Cliffs Research Articles

A reassessment of ice cliff dynamics upon debris-covered glaciers

Abstract We present a new model for understanding ice cliff dynamics within a debris-covered glacier ablation zone. This simple energy-balance model incorporates a moving frame of reference, made necessary by the melt of the surrounding debris-covered ice. In so doing, this also formalises how different types of field measurements can be utilised and compared. Our predictions include showing: ice cliffs can endogenously select their own slope angles; that there should be an indifference between illuminated north- and south-facing ice cliff slopes; that ice cliffs grow steeper with thicker debris layers; that ice cliffs cannot stably exist below a certain critical debris thickness and that some modelling of ice cliffs (when not incorporating the moving frame) may incorrectly estimate ice mass losses. All of our results are produced using parametrisations from Baltoro Glacier, Karakoram.

A low chance of collapsing ice cliffs

A low chance of collapsing ice cliffs

Deriving seasonal and annual surface mass balance for debris-covered glaciers from flow-corrected satellite stereo DEM time series

Abstract Glaciers in High-Mountain Asia are experiencing varying rates and patterns of mass loss due to a complex interplay between glacier surface processes, local conditions and climate forcing. Spatially distributed surface mass balance (SMB) estimates can provide valuable insight into these drivers, but observations are currently limited in both space and time. We used very-high-resolution optical stereo images acquired by commercial satellites to prepare time series of digital elevation models (DEMs), and derived contemporaneous surface velocity and elevation change products for six debris-covered glaciers in Nepal. We developed new methods to produce flow-corrected Lagrangian SMB maps to isolate local surface ablation signals with enough detail to study individual ice cliffs. Our results show reduced ablation under thick debris cover and enhanced ablation over ice cliffs. Ablating ice cliffs were responsible for $10\!-\!38\%$ of the total ablation over debris-covered areas, even though they covered $\leq \!11\%$ of the total area. Seasonal SMB products reveal the timing and patterns of summer accumulation and ablation, underscoring the importance of snow avalanches for low-elevation debris-covered glaciers in the region. Our approach can be applied to other glaciers with repeat high-resolution DEM coverage and extended for regional analyses of SMB on seasonal to interannual timescales.

Antarctica's ice cliff conundrum.

Tall ice cliffs at a rapidly retreating glacier in West Antarctica may not be as vulnerable to runaway ice loss as previously thought.

Mass Balance of Maritime Glaciers in the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau during Recent Decades

Maritime glaciers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) are particularly sensitive to changes in climate, and their changes directly and severely affect regional water security and glacier-related hazards. Given their large societal importance, a better understanding of the mass balance of maritime glaciers in the SETP, a key variable for characterizing the state of glacier health, is of great scientific interest. In this review, we synthesize in situ, satellite-based observations and simulations that present an overall accelerating negative mass balance of maritime glaciers in the SETP in recent decades. We hereby highlight a significant spatiotemporal difference in the mass balance of maritime glaciers across the SETP and investigate the drivers of the accelerated mass loss of these glaciers in recent years. We find that accelerated glacier mass loss agrees with the variabilities in temperatures rising and precipitation decreasing at regional scales, as well as the spatial patterns of widespread melt hotspots (e.g., thin debris, ice cliffs, supraglacial ponds, and surface streams), the expansion of glacial lakes, enlarged ice crevasses, and frequent ice avalanches. Finally, the challenges of the mass balance study of maritime glaciers and future perspectives are proposed. Our review confirms the urgent need to improve the existing glacier inventory and establish comprehensive monitoring networks in data-scarce glacierized catchments, and it suggests paying particular attention to the development of glacier mass-balance models that coupe multiple physical processes at different interfaces to predict the status of maritime glaciers and their responses to climate change. This study can inform the sustainable management of water resources and the assessment of socio-economic vulnerability due to glacier-related hazards in the SETP and its surroundings in the context of marked atmospheric warming.

Stream hydrology controls on ice cliff evolution and survival on debris-covered glaciers

Abstract. Ice cliffs are melt hot spots that contribute disproportionately to melt on debris-covered glaciers. In this study, we investigate the impact of supraglacial stream hydrology on ice cliffs using in situ and remote sensing observations, streamflow measurements, and a conceptual geomorphic model of ice cliff backwasting applied to ice cliffs on Kennicott Glacier, Alaska. We found that 33 % of ice cliffs (accounting for 69 % of the ice cliff area) are actively influenced by streams, while half are nearer than 10 m from the nearest stream. Supraglacial streams contribute to ice cliff formation and maintenance by horizontal meandering, vertical incision, and debris transport. These processes produce an undercut lip at the ice cliff base and transport clasts up to tens of centimeters in diameter, preventing reburial of ice cliffs by debris. Stream meander morphology reminiscent of sedimentary river channel meanders and oxbow lakes produces sinuous and crescent ice cliff shapes. Stream avulsions result in rapid ice cliff collapse and local channel abandonment. Ice cliffs abandoned by streams are observed to be reburied by supraglacial debris, indicating a strong role played by streams in ice cliff persistence. We also report on a localized surge-like event at the glacier's western margin which drove the formation of ice cliffs from crevassing; these cliffs occur in sets with parallel linear morphologies contrasting with the crescent planform shape of stream-driven cliffs. The development of landscape evolution models may assist in quantifying the total net effect of these processes on steady-state ice cliff coverage and mass balance, contextualizing them with other drivers including supraglacial ponds, differential melt, ice dynamics, and collapse of englacial voids.

Monitoring a high mountain glacier through georeferenced time-lapse photography: Tapado, Dry Andes of Chile (30°S)

ABSTRACT Glaciers and snow cover provide freshwater for irrigated agriculture and urban consumption in the Dry Andes. Given the aridity of this environment, sublimation losses are significant, making precise monitoring techniques crucial in estimating glacier changes. Continuous monitoring of glaciers is typically conducted through the use of automatic weather stations (AWS). However, these stations may not capture the full extent of glacier changes, warranting the use of additional monitoring techniques such as close-range remote sensing and satellite imagery. This study utilizes time-lapse photography acquired from 2013 to 2015 to examine the temporal and spatial albedo variations across the Tapado Glacier, along with the surface changes in the debris-covered section. Sequential orthorectified images were used to observe the spatial evolution of ice cliffs and supraglacial ponds as they changed over time. High-resolution displacement measurements were obtained using feature tracking methods on the debris-covered glacier. Additionally, distributed albedo maps were produced by comparing photographic data with point albedo measurements from an AWS. The results indicate decreased albedo values during summer, along with the expansion of supraglacial ponds and ice cliffs in the debris-covered region. The study also proposes a cost-effective remote site monitoring approach using time-lapse photography for continuous observation and data collection.

Contrasting Changes of Debris-Free Glacier and Debris-Covered Glacier in Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

Debris-free and debris-covered glaciers are both extensively present in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. High-precision and rigorous comparative observational studies on different types of glaciers help us to accurately understand the overall state of water resource variability and the underlying mechanisms. In this study, we used multi-temporal simultaneous UAV surveys to systematically explore the surface elevation change, surface velocity, and surface mass balance of two representative glaciers. Our findings indicate that the thinning rate in the debris-free Parlung No. 4 glacier UAV survey area was consistently higher than that in the debris-covered 24K glacier in 2020–2021 (−1.16 ± 0.03 cm/d vs. −0.36 ± 0.02 cm/d) and 2021–2022 (−0.69 ± 0.03 cm/d vs. −0.26 ± 0.03 cm/d). Moreover, the surface velocity of the Parlung No. 4 glacier was also consistently higher than that of the 24K glacier across the survey period, suggesting a more dynamic glacial state. The surface mass balance of the Parlung No. 4 glacier (2020–2021: −1.82 ± 0.09 cm/d; 2021–2022: −1.30 ± 0.09 cm/d) likewise outpaced that of the 24K glacier (2020–2021: −0.81 ± 0.07 cm/d; 2021–2022: −0.70 ± 0.07 cm/d) throughout the observation period, which indicates that the debris cover slowed the glacier’s melting. Additionally, we extracted the melt contribution of the ice cliff area in the 24K glacier and found that the melt ratio of this ‘hotspot’ area ranged from 10.4% to 11.6% from 2020 to 2022. This comparative analysis of two representative glaciers provides evidence to support the critical role of debris cover in controlling surface elevation changes, glacier dynamics, and surface mass balance.

Annual velocities of the ablation zone of Panchi Nala Glacier, western Himalaya: Trends and controlling factors

Information on the glacier velocity is imperative to understand the glacier ice volume, supraglacial feature evolution and glacier-climate interaction. The present study investigates annual velocities of the ablation zone (∼4500–4800 m asl) of Panchi Nala Glacier, western Himalaya through feature tracking. For this, multi-temporal Landsat (TM and OLI) and Sentinel −2 MSI images, acquired between 2000 and 2021, were correlated using the Co-registration of Optically Sensed Images and Correlation (COSI-Corr) tool. Results reveal a mean velocity of the ablation zone to be 10.6 ± 5.6 m/y during 2000–2021, with the highest (13.8 ± 4.6 m/y) and lowest velocity (8.9 ± 2.8 m/y) observed in 2005 and 2015, respectively. There is no significant trend in the velocity, rather it is highly heterogeneous on the inter-annual scale. Further, the influence of several factors such as slope, debris cover, altitude, annual average temperature and precipitation on the glacier velocity was investigated. Results indicate that the inter-annual heterogeneity in velocity is inversely correlated with the variation of summer precipitation implying that an increase in summer precipitation decreases the glacier velocity. The spatio-temporal velocity variations are also linked with the presence of supraglacial ponds, ice cliffs and heterogeneous debris distribution over the glacier. Findings indicate that, though annual glacier velocities have not changed significantly, their magnitudes are consistently low which coupled with consistent debris increase (19.74%) and gentle slope (8.2° over ablation zone) can promote rapid growth of supraglacial ponds and ice cliffs.

Stability of Ice Shelves and Ice Cliffs in a Changing Climate

The largest uncertainty in future sea-level rise is loss of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets. Ice shelves, freely floating platforms of ice that fringe the ice sheets, play a crucial role in restraining discharge of grounded ice into the ocean through buttressing. However, since the 1990s, several ice shelves have thinned, retreated, and collapsed. If this pattern continues, it could expose thick cliffs that become structurally unstable and collapse in a process called marine ice cliff instability (MICI). However, the feedbacks between calving, retreat, and other forcings are not well understood. Here we review observed modes of calving from ice shelves and marine-terminating glaciers, and their relation to environmental forces. We show that the primary driver of calving is long-term internal glaciological stress, but as ice shelves thin they may become more vulnerable to environmental forcing. This vulnerability—and the potential for MICI—comes from a combination of the distribution of preexisting flaws within the ice and regions where the stress is large enough to initiate fracture. Although significant progress has been made modeling these processes, theories must now be tested against a wide range of environmental and glaciological conditions in both modern and paleo conditions. ▪Ice shelves, floating platforms of ice fed by ice sheets, shed mass in a near-instantaneous fashion through iceberg calving.▪Most ice shelves exhibit a stable cycle of calving front advance and retreat that is insensitive to small changes in environmental conditions.▪Some ice shelves have retreated or collapsed completely, and in the future this could expose thick cliffs that could become structurally unstable called ice cliff instability.▪The potential for ice shelf and ice cliff instability is controlled by the presence and evolution of flaws or fractures within the ice.

2000–2020年喀喇昆仑山洪扎河流域冰川高程变化数据集

Under the influence of climate warming, glaciers in High Mountain Asia (HMA) have undergone significant recession in recent decades. However, stable or even positive glacier mass budgets have been found in the Karakoram Mountains in the past decades, which is termed as “Karakoram anomaly”. The Hunza Basin, located in the western Karakoram, is a region with concentrated glacier development along the Sino-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The glacier mass balance in Hunza Basin plays an important role in water resource utilization and infrastructure construction. In this study, we used the SRTM DEM (2000) and ZY3-02 stereo images (2020) to obtain the glacier height changes in the Hunza Basin by employing the method of Geodetic (GeoTIFF format with a resolution of 30 m). This study covers an area of around 7600 km2, within the spatial extent of 36°N–37°N, 74°E–76°E. The statistical analysis of the residual movement in the non-glacial region indicates an overall accuracy of about 1.1 m. The findings suggest that glaciers experienced a moderate thinning during the early 21st century, with significant spatial variations. Factors such as debris cover, crevasses, supraglacial lake, ice cliff and glacier surge have distinct influences on glacier height changes. This dataset can be used as basic data for the research on glacier mass balance in the Karakoram, as well as water resources utilization, glacier disaster warning and climate change in the Sino-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Geodynamically corrected Pliocene shoreline elevations in Australia consistent with midrange projections of Antarctic ice loss

The Mid-Pliocene represents the most recent interval in Earth history with climatic conditions similar to those expected in the coming decades. Mid-Pliocene sea level estimates therefore provide important constraints on projections of future ice sheet behavior and sea level change but differ by tens of meters due to local distortion of paleoshorelines caused by mantle dynamics. We combine an Australian sea level marker compilation with geodynamic simulations and probabilistic inversions to quantify and remove these post-Pliocene vertical motions at continental scale. Dynamic topography accounts for most of the observed sea level marker deflection, and correcting for this effect and glacial isostatic adjustment yields a Mid-Pliocene global mean sea level of +16.0 (+10.4 to +21.5) m (50th/16th to 84th percentiles). Recalibration of recent high-end sea level projections using this revised estimate implies a more stable Antarctic Ice Sheet under future warming scenarios, consistent with midrange forecasts of sea level rise that do not incorporate a marine ice cliff instability.

Seasonal changes in submarine melting mechanisms controlling frontal ablation of Hansbreen, Svalbard

Abstract We describe the annual pattern of frontal ablation driven by submarine melting mechanisms at the Hansbreen terminus: these are reflected in the intensity and spatial distribution of calving events. Analysis of time-lapse images of the Hansbreen front in conjunction with oceanographic and meteorological data shows that calving intensity is driven primarily by seawater temperature. Regression analysis also highlights the importance of air temperature, which we take to be a proxy for surface ablation and subglacial discharge. This, combined with seasonal changes in ice cliff tortuosity and the increasing significance of wave motion outside the ablation season, enabled us to determine seasonal changes in the mechanisms of ice cliff undercutting by submarine melting. While submarine melting controlled by estuarine circulation primarily drives frontal ablation in summer, wave-driven melting at the waterline is more important outside the ablation season. During winter, ice cliff undercutting by melting is suspended by low seawater temperature, negligible subglacial water discharge and sea-ice cover. The most intense frontal ablation, recorded in summer, was related to higher sea temperature and vigorous estuarine circulation.

Englacial Drainage Drives Positive Feedback Depression Growth on the Debris‐Covered Ngozumpa Glacier, Nepal

AbstractThe development of hummocky topography is a poorly understood aspect of down‐wasting on debris‐covered glaciers that is often attributed to variable debris thickness. Thousands of enclosed depressions pit the hummocky topography. To better understand depression growth, we examined the size distribution and geometry of depressions on the Ngozumpa Glacier, in the Everest Region of Nepal. The depressions exhibited a power‐law size distribution, fractal perimeters, and power‐law depth‐area scaling, which suggest positive feedback growth. With a simple model, we showed that positive feedback growth produces similar power‐law size distributions. Based on these findings, we propose a “sinkhole” hypothesis for the development of depressions. Drainage into englacial sink points removes debris from the depressions and inhibits ponds from overflowing, thereby enabling positive feedback growth via incision, increased sub‐debris melt rates, and ice cliff retreat. By facilitating sustained depression growth, englacial drainage preconditions the ablation zone for the rapid growth of glacial lakes.

DSCIM-Coastal v1.1: an open-source modeling platform for global impacts of sea level rise

Abstract. Sea level rise (SLR) may impose substantial economic costs to coastal communities worldwide, but characterizing its global impact remains challenging because SLR costs depend heavily on natural characteristics and human investments at each location – including topography, the spatial distribution of assets, and local adaptation decisions. To date, several impact models have been developed to estimate the global costs of SLR. Yet, the limited availability of open-source and modular platforms that easily ingest up-to-date socioeconomic and physical data sources restricts the ability of existing systems to incorporate new insights transparently. In this paper, we present a modular, open-source platform designed to address this need, providing end-to-end transparency from global input data to a scalable least-cost optimization framework that estimates adaptation and net SLR costs for nearly 10 000 global coastline segments and administrative regions. Our approach accounts both for uncertainty in the magnitude of global mean sea level (g.m.s.l.) rise and spatial variability in local relative sea level rise. Using this platform, we evaluate costs across 230 possible socioeconomic and SLR trajectories in the 21st century. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report (AR6), g.m.s.l. is likely to rise during the 21st century by 0.40–0.69 m if late-century warming reaches 2 ∘C and by 0.58–0.91 m with 4 ∘C of warming (Fox-Kemper et al., 2021). With no forward-looking adaptation, we estimate that annual costs of sea level rise associated with a 2 ∘C scenario will likely fall between USD 1.2 and 4.0 trillion (0.1 % and 1.2 % of GDP, respectively) by 2100, depending on socioeconomic and sea level rise trajectories. Cost-effective, proactive adaptation would provide substantial benefits, lowering these values to between USD 110 and USD 530 billion (0.02 and 0.06 %) under an optimal adaptation scenario. For the likely SLR trajectories associated with 4 ∘C warming, these costs range from USD 3.1 to 6.9 trillion (0.3 % and 2.0 %) with no forward-looking adaptation and USD 200 billion to USD 750 billion (0.04 % to 0.09 %) under optimal adaptation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that deeply uncertain physical processes like marine ice cliff instability could drive substantially higher global sea level rise, potentially approaching 2.0 m by 2100 in very high emission scenarios. Accordingly, we also model the impacts of 1.5 and 2.0 m g.m.s.l. rises by 2100; the associated annual cost estimates range from USD 11.2 to 30.6 trillion (1.2 % and 7.6 %) under no forward-looking adaptation and USD 420 billion to 1.5 trillion (0.08 % to 0.20 %) under optimal adaptation. Our modeling platform used to generate these estimates is publicly available in an effort to spur research collaboration and support decision-making, with segment-level physical and socioeconomic input characteristics provided at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7693868 (Bolliger et al., 2023a) and model results at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7693869 (Bolliger et al., 2023b).

A grid-based model of backwasting of supraglacial ice cliffs on debris-covered glaciers – ADDENDUM

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Historical explosive activity of Mount Melbourne Volcanic Field (Antarctica) revealed by englacial tephra deposits

Five tephra layers named BRH1 to 5 were sampled in an ice cliff located on the north-eastern flank of Mount Melbourne (northern Victoria Land, Antarctica). The texture, componentry, mineralogy, and major and trace element compositions of glass shards have been used to characterize these layers. These properties suggest that they are primary fall deposits produced from discrete eruptions that experienced varying degrees of magma/water interaction. The major and trace element glass shard analyses on single glass shards indicate that Mount Melbourne Volcanic Field is the source of these tephra layers and the geochemical diversity highlights that the eruptions were fed by compositionally diverse melts that are interpreted to be from a complex magma system with a mafic melt remobilizing more evolved trachy-andesitic to trachytic magma pockets. Geochemical compositions, along with textural and mineralogical data, have allowed correlations between two of the englacial tephra and distal cryptotephra from Mount Melbourne, recovered within a marine sediment core in the Edisto Inlet (~ 280 km northeast of Mount Melbourne), and constrain the age of these englacial tephra layers to between the third and the fourth century CE. This work provides new evidence of the intense historical explosive activity of the Mount Melbourne Volcanic Field and better constrains the rates of volcanism in northern Victoria Land. These data grant new clues on the eruptive dynamics and tephra dispersal, and considerably expand the geochemical (major and trace elements) dataset available for the Mount Melbourne Volcanic Field. In the future, this will facilitate the precise identification of tephra layers from this volcanic source and will help define the temporal and spatial correlation between Antarctic records using tephra layers. Finally, this work also yields new valuable time-stratigraphic marker horizons for future dating, synchronization, and correlations of different palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic records across large regions of Antarctica.

Glacier structure influence on Himalayan ice‐front morphology

AbstractWe investigate the role of glacier structures in controlling ice‐front morphology and dynamics of four Himalayan lake‐terminating glaciers over a 20‐year period. At Imja, Trakarding, Lumdin and Dang Pu glaciers, lake area was mapped between 2000 and 2020 using Landsat 5/7/8 and Sentinel‐2 imagery. Discrete glacier flow units were identified, with glacier structures (e.g., open crevasses, transverse structures, longitudinal structures) digitised using the finest resolution panchromatic bands in each year (30, 15, or 10 m). Mapping revealed a distinct pattern of transverse structures towards the terminus of each glacier that influence ice‐front position and morphology and are then exploited via iceberg calving events. Our structural analysis also illustrates the role of subsurface conduits in calving events. During subsurface conduit collapse, glacier recession is enhanced, leading to calving along adjacent transverse structures. Furthermore, our analysis shows that ice‐front morphology influences the pattern of glacier recession. Ice fronts with distinct ice aprons undergo slower periods of recession than ice fronts with ice cliffs. We conclude that glacier structures are important in determining ice‐front morphologies at lake‐terminating Himalayan glaciers, and therefore, structural analysis is vital when assessing future ice‐front positions and behaviour, as well as rates of glacier recession.

Spatial variability in melting on Himalayan debris-covered glaciers from 2000 to 2013

Glaciers covered by debris are widespread in the Himalayas. Debris layer makes the melting process of glaciers complicated, and the correlation between the spatial melt differences of glacier and its surface features is still not clear. The aim of this study was to identify possible causes of thickness changes for Himalayan debris-covered glaciers. Firstly, three high resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) datasets including SRTM DEM, AW3D and TanDEM-X DEM were used to estimate glacier thickness changes from 2000 to 2013. By checking and removing geometric displacements, systematic deviations and elevation-related bias, as well as correction of radar wave penetration depth in the clean glacier areas, reliable thickness change information in this complex glaciated region were provided. Then debris thicknesses on the glaciers were estimated. The surface lowering caused by ice cliffs or supraglacial ponds significantly reduces debris thickness. Finally, some surface features including debris thicknesses, spatial patterns of supraglacial ponds and ice cliffs extracted from high-resolution satellite images in different times, were comprehensively used to evaluate the main drivers of glacier melting differences. Results demonstrate that spatial variability of glacier melting in Himalayas is caused by the combined effects of debris thicknesses, ice cliffs and supraglacial lakes, with different dominant factors for different regions. The thickened glacier region, which mostly appears above 5300 m a.s.l., with minimal debris cover, displayed large patches of thickening and partial serious thinning in the debris-free areas. Although the thick debris layer (> 0.20 m) would slow down the glacier melting at the low-elevations, it leads to the heavy glacier thinning for the regions located 5000–5300 m a.s.l., where there are dense ice cliffs. In some areas with >1 m of average debris thickness, glaciers have thinned slowly because of erosion from the ice cliffs or large supraglacial ponds. Area and number of cliffs have proven to be key factors in controlling regional ablation for debris-covered glaciers, and supraglacial lakes serve as assistance.

Differential surface melting of a debris-covered glacier and its geomorphological control — A case study from Batal Glacier, western Himalaya

The spatially variable response of Himalayan glaciers is often linked with the melting rate caused by supraglacial debris cover on the glacier surface. Studies have identified the role of debris cover in inhibiting underneath ice melt, but the spatial distribution of debris thickness still needs to be discovered in the region. We conducted debris thickness estimation at 110 locations and in-situ mass balance measurements over Batal Glacier from Chandra basin in the semi-arid region of the western Himalaya from 2013 to 2019 to establish a relationship between ice ablation rates and debris thicknesses. Overall, the annual ablation for the debris-covered area varied between 1.3 and 1.8 m w.e. a−1, with a mean annual ablation of 1.6 m w.e. a−1 during 2013–2019. While the point ablation rate does not exceed 3 m w.e. a−1 at any specific glacier area throughout the observation period. The melt rate was attenuated up to 80 % under the debris thickness ranging from 2 to 72 cm. The formation and thickness of the debris increased linearly down the glacier, sparse in the centreline owing to supraglacial channels and ice walls, and higher at the margins due to the contribution from avalanches. Supraglacial water channels and ice cliffs along the centreline were also observed as persistent contributors to the ablation rate. However, a higher mean surface slope (12°) of the ablation zone constraints the formation of supraglacial ponds. The area with patchy debris cover has an increased melt rate compared to the completely debris-covered area. Spatially distributed but reduced ice ablation under varying debris thickness underlines the influence of debris thickness on the underneath ice melt rate for Himalayan glaciers. Further studies on the evolution of supraglacial ponds and ice cliffs are required to understand the shrinking of glaciers in response to climate change in the western Himalaya.