TITLE:
Peculiar Characteristics of Fragmentation of Glaciers: A Case Study of Western Himalaya, India
AUTHORS:
Rupal M. Brahmbhatt, B. P. Rathore, Sandhyarani Pattnaik, Purnesh Jani, I. Bahuguna, R. D. Shah, A. S. Rajawat
KEYWORDS:
Fragmentation, Detachment, Glacier Retreat, Himachal Pradesh
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.6 No.4,
April
21,
2015
ABSTRACT: The areal extent of many
Himalayan glaciers is decreasing where number of glaciers is increasing. This
increasing number is subject to the fragmentation of limbs of main trunk
glacier. However, disintegration of limbs is not observed in all the glacier
system. This paper emphases the scenario of the fragmentation occurred in
glaciers. Two glaciers from the two different basins have been taken into the
consideration for this study. The peculiar characteristic of these glaciers is
that, the tributary glaciers are showing less retreat in compare to main trunk
glaciers. Due to this reason the rate of shift in snout is higher in main trunk
glaciers than tributary glaciers. However, in recent data the tributary
glaciers have experienced little higher loss in glacial ice than main glacier.
But the shift of snout in main trunk glacier is no doubt surprising since past.
Therefore, various parameters have been examined to identify the cause of such
a behavior of glaciers. The common factors observed in both the glaciers are
accumulation area ratio which is higher, snow line altitude which is lower in
tributary glaciers for the period of 2005-2013. Another factor is the
orientation as tributary glaciers are towards NE direction. In addition, slope
of Dharlang glacier (main limb) is 4? where it is 18? in tributary glacier.