The loss of these glaciers will impact the regional water cycle and will add a small amount to the problem of freshwater entering the oceans.
Originally posted on Summit County Citizens Voice:
Ice loss has huge implications for regional water resources
North facing slope of the Jetim-Bel range, Kyrgyzstan. Glacier melt is an essential water resource in an otherwise dry environment. Photo courtesy Daniel Farinotti.
Staff Report
FRISCO — Glaciers in the Tien Shan, Central Asia’s largest mountain range, have lost 27 percent of their mass and 18 percent of their area during the last 50 years, shedding an average of 5.4 gigatons of ice per year.
By 2050 about half of Tien Shan’s glacier volume could be depleted, a team of scientists estimated in a new paper published in the current online issue of Nature Geoscience.
The study was led by scientists with the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and the institute of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Rennes University.
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