Dataset Information

The hazardous 2017-2019 surge and river damming by Shispare Glacier, Karakoram.

ABSTRACT: In 2017-2019 a surge of Shispare Glacier, a former tributary of the once larger Hasanabad Glacier (Hunza region), dammed the proglacial river of Muchuhar Glacier, which formed an ice-dammed lake and generated a small Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). Surge movement produced the highest recorded Karakoram glacier surface flow rate using feature tracking (~18?±?0.5 m d-1) and resulted in a glacier frontal advance of 1495?±?47 m. The surge speed was less than reports of earlier Hasanabad advances during 1892/93 (9.3 km) and 1903 (9.7 km). Surges also occurred in 1973 and 2000-2001. Recent surges and lake evolution are examined using feature tracking in satellite images (1990-2019), DEM differencing (1973-2019), and thermal satellite data (2000-2019). The recent active phase of Shispare surge began in April 2018, showed two surface flow maxima in June 2018 and May 2019, and terminated following a GLOF on 22-23 June 2019. The surge likely had hydrological controls influenced in winter by compromised subglacial flow and low meltwater production. It terminated during summer probably because increased meltwater restored efficient channelized flow. We also identify considerable heterogeneity of movement, including spring/summer accelerations.

SUBMITTER: Bhambri R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7070009 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The hazardous 2017-2019 surge and river damming by Shispare Glacier, Karakoram.

Bhambri Rakesh R Watson C Scott CS Hewitt Kenneth K Haritashya Umesh K UK Kargel Jeffrey S JS Pratap Shahi Arjun A Chand Pritam P Kumar Amit A Verma Akshaya A Govil Himanshu H

Scientific reports 20200313 1

In 2017-2019 a surge of Shispare Glacier, a former tributary of the once larger Hasanabad Glacier (Hunza region), dammed the proglacial river of Muchuhar Glacier, which formed an ice-dammed lake and generated a small Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). Surge movement produced the highest recorded Karakoram glacier surface flow rate using feature tracking (~18 ± 0.5 m d<sup>-1</sup>) and resulted in a glacier frontal advance of 1495 ± 47 m. The surge speed was less than reports of earlier Hasanab ...[more]

PMID: 32170170

Similar Datasets

Project description:Planktonic microorganisms play an important role in maintaining the ecological functions in aquatic ecosystems, but how their structure and function interrelate and respond to environmental changes is still not very clear. Damming interrupts the river continuum and alters river nutrient biogeochemical cycling and biological succession. Considering that river damming decreases the irregular hydrological fluctuation, we hypothesized that it can enhance the ecological functional stability (EFS) of planktonic microorganisms. Therefore, the community composition of planktonic bacteria and archaea, functional genes related to carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus cycling, and relevant environmental factors of four cascade reservoirs in the Pearl River, Southern China, were investigated to understand the impact of damming on microbial community structure and function and verify the above hypothesis. Here, the ratio of function to taxa (F:T) based on Euclidean distance matrix analysis was first proposed to characterize the microbial EFS; the smaller the ratio, the more stable the ecological functions. The results showed that the reservoirs created by river damming had seasonal thermal and chemical stratifications with an increasing hydraulic retention time, which significantly changed the microbial structure and function. The river microbial F:T was significantly higher than that of the reservoirs, indicating that river damming enhances the EFS of the planktonic microorganisms. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that water temperature was an important factor influencing the relationship between the microbial structure and function and thus affected their EFS. In addition, reservoir hydraulic load was found a main factor regulating the seasonal difference in microbial EFS among the reservoirs. This study will help to deepen the understanding of the relationship between microbial structure and function and provide a theoretical basis of assessing the ecological function change after the construction of river damming.

Dataset Information

The hazardous 2017-2019 surge and river damming by Shispare Glacier, Karakoram.

Publications

The hazardous 2017-2019 surge and river damming by Shispare Glacier, Karakoram.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets