Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Hunan University of Science and Technology and Mount Qomolangma Snow Leopard Conservation Centre has released a report showing Glaciers on Mount Everest have shrunk by 28% over the past 40 years due to climate change.
- Glaciers on Mount Everest are a major source of Asian rivers including Brahmaputra and Ganges.
- Data was based on long-term remote sensing and on-site monitoring where glacial shrinkage area is compared to the measurements taken in the 1970s.
Highlights of report
- The glacier area on the south slope of Mount Everest in Nepal has decreased 26% in comparison with the 1980s.
- Mt Everest known as Mount Qomolangma in Tibet has been getting warmer for the past 50 years.
- At present there are 1,476 glaciers in China’s Mt Qomolangma national nature reserve, covering 2,030 square kilometres.
- The shrinking glaciers have resulted in swelling glacial lakes and higher river levels
- Remote sensing data showed that the area of a glacial lake in Mt Everest nature reserve increased from about 100 square kilometres in 1990 to 114 square kilometres in 2013.
Earlier warning!
Earlier in May, a group of international researchers had warned that the estimated 5,500 glaciers in the Hindu Kush- Himalayan (HKH) region site of many of the world’s tallest peaks including Mount Everest could reduce their volume by 70-99% by 2100.
About Himalayas
The outer Himalayas lie between the lease Himalayas and the Indo Gangetic plain which is a source of three of the world’s major river systems: the Indus Basin, the Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin and the Yangtze Basin.
- Himalayas stretch across six nations: Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan