Now and then:
Himalaya's
vanishing
glaciers
Environment reporter
By Bhupender Singh
Over a span of 20 years, the Himalayas have experienced a reduction in their glacial masses equivalent to the weight of 570 million elephants.
Between 2000 and 2020, the number of proglacial lakes in the area grew by 47%, while their area and volume increased by 33% and 42%, respectively.
This expansion caused a loss of approximately 2.7 Gt of glacier mass, which is equivalent to the weight of 570 million elephants or over 1000 times the total elephant population worldwide.
HImalaya glaciers
David Rounce, a co-author from Carnegie Mellon University, stated that we anticipate lake-terminating glaciers to remain a significant contributor to total mass loss in the twenty-first century
A team of researchers to reveal that earlier evaluations had underestimated the total mass loss of lake-terminating glaciers in the greater Himalayas by 65%.
This is due to the likelihood that glaciers with substantial mass loss may vanish at a faster rate than current projections suggest, resulting in ongoing mass loss in the long term.
The researchers emphasized the importance of comprehending the mechanisms behind glacier mass loss, as well as the global underestimation of mass loss in lake-terminating glaciers.