KATHMANDU, Nepal–Mera and Pokalde glaciers situated at an altitude of 5,000 meters in the Everest region of Solukhumbu district are continuously melting even in winter season; challenging the previous assumption that glacier loses the snow only during summer seasons due to the rises in temperature.
A team of experts reached to the conclusion that the glaciers melted even in cold days due to the wind erosion and sublimation in the region. The report is published in November edition of The Cryosphere journal, an international scientific journal dedicated to publication and discussion of research articles.
The most significant and noticeable aspect of the study is the average rate of snow loss in the Everest is roughly four times minus than the Alps in Europe. ‘Despite of significant melting of ice even in the winter, the rate is relatively less than in the Alps says member of the study Patrick Wagnon. Also a visiting scientist at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Wagnon claimed that the Himalayan glacier would not wipe out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) projected even though the temperature of the earth keeps warming at current rate.
Earlier, in its 2007 report, IPCC had projected that the Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035 if the earth goes on warming at the current rate.
Wagnon´s team has been carrying out the study of Mera and Pokalde glaciers since 2007. The team has been conducting the seasonal and annual mass balances of these two glaciers twice a year.
Wagnon, who has been involved in research on the development of glaciers since two decades is also planning to come up with some projections about the glacier melting in Everest region in the days to come.
