The Glaciers Are Melting. This One Is Growing
4 months ago
- #glaciers
- #Pamir Mountains
- #climate change
- Climate change is causing glaciers worldwide to disappear at a rate of about 1,000 per year, leading to loss of ecosystems, freshwater sources, and cultural significance.
- The Pamir Mountains in Central Asia, particularly the Kon-Chukurbashi ice cap, have historically resisted this trend, even gaining mass.
- Scientists retrieved ice cores from the Kon-Chukurbashi ice cap to study its resilience, with one sample stored in Antarctica and another analyzed in Japan.
- The ice cores could provide up to 30,000 years of data on atmospheric conditions, snowfall, and temperature in the understudied Pamir region.
- Recent studies indicate that the Pamir region's glaciers may be losing their resilience due to decreased snowfall, with a tipping point reached by 2018 for the Kyzylsu Glacier.
- The findings suggest that even the most resilient glaciers are succumbing to anthropogenic climate change.