While glaciers worldwide are melting at a record pace due to climate change, the ice giants in Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains remain stable. European scientists on a new expedition are investigating the phenomenon of the so-called Karakoram Anomaly, hoping to protect glaciers globally.
UNN reports with reference to "Nau.ch".
Details
Due to the effects of climate change, most of our planet's glaciers are melting, some even at a record pace. However, in the high-altitude Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, the opposite phenomenon is observed. Some glaciers in this region are at least stable, and some are even growing.
The phenomenon observed in the high mountain range of Central Asia is called the "Karakoram Anomaly." The leading hypothesis explains it by intensive irrigation in neighboring Pakistan.
Reference
The Karakoram, a mountain system in Central Asia, within India, China, and Pakistan, is part of a grandiose complex of mountain systems in the center of Asia. On the Pakistani side of the Pamir-Karakoram region, one of the largest irrigated areas in the world is located. Evaporation releases a significant amount of moisture into the atmosphere, which later falls as snow over the Pamir Mountains.
Swiss scientists investigate the "Karakoram anomaly" on site
Glaciology specialists conduct field research on the massive Pamir glaciers, including drilling ice samples from the glacier to obtain climate archives. Recently, researchers worked at an altitude of over 5800 meters on the Kon Chukurbači ice cap, from which two ice cores, each 105 meters long, were extracted.
Scientists hope that the ice cores will reveal the secret of the anomaly.
Researchers have already formed a climate archive that may even span millennia. Using these samples, researchers can draw conclusions about the state of snowfall, temperatures, atmosphere, and dust far into the past.
Experts hope to get answers to key questions.
- will these glaciers retreat like the rest of the world?
- will they be able to recover?
- can the anomaly last longer?
If new groundbreaking conclusions can be drawn about how the Karakoram Anomaly manifested and how this phenomenon may develop in the future, then this will certainly add important information to today's pressing topic:
How to effectively protect our planet's glaciers on a global scale.
Recall
Heat related to climate change has led to a new level of mortality of over half a million people per year. Emissions from fossil fuels affect air pollution. This ultimately leads to record numbers in global death statistics.
The UN climate change organization expects the first reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, but the pace is insufficient to meet climate limits.