(Press-News.org) Cancún, Mexico -- Researchers taking a new look at the snow
and ice covering Mount Everest and the national park that
surrounds it are finding abundant evidence that the world's tallest
peak is shedding its frozen cloak. The scientists have also been
studying temperature and precipitation trends in the area and
found that the Everest region has been warming while snowfall
has been declining since the early 1990s.
Members of the team conducting these studies will present their
findings on May 14 at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancun,
Mexico - a scientific conference organized and co-sponsored by
the American Geophysical Union.
Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent
in the last 50 years and the snowline has shifted upward by 180
meters (590 feet), according to Sudeep Thakuri, who is leading
the research as part of his PhD graduate studies at the University
of Milan in Italy.
Glaciers smaller than one square kilometer are
disappearing the fastest and have experienced a 43 percent
decrease in surface area since the 1960s. Because the glaciers are
melting faster than they are replenished by ice and snow, they are
revealing rocks and debris that were previously hidden deep
under the ice. These debris-covered sections of the glaciers have
increased by about 17 percent since the 1960s, according to
Thakuri. The ends of the glaciers have also retreated by an
average of 400 meters since 1962, his team found.
The researchers suspect that the decline of snow and ice in the
Everest region is from human-generated greenhouse gases
altering global climate. However, they have not yet established a
firm connection between the mountains' changes and climate
change, Thakuri said.
He and his team determined the extent of glacial change on
Everest and the surrounding 1,148 square kilometer (713 square
mile) Sagarmatha National Park by compiling satellite imagery
and topographic maps and reconstructing the glacial history.
Their statistical analysis shows that the majority of the glaciers in
the national park are retreating at an increasing rate, Thakuri
said.
To evaluate the temperature and precipitation patterns in the
area, Thakuri and his colleagues have been analyzing hydro-
meteorological data from the Nepal Climate Observatory stations
and Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The
researchers found that the Everest region has undergone a 0.6
degree Celsius (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperature
and 100 millimeter (3.9 inches) decrease in precipitation during
the pre-monsoon and winter months since 1992.
In subsequent research, Thakuri plans on exploring the climate-
glacier relationship further with the aim of integrating the
glaciological, hydrological and climatic data to understand the
behavior of the hydrological cycle and future water availability.
"The Himalayan glaciers and ice caps are considered a water
tower for Asia since they store and supply water downstream
during the dry season," said Thakuri. "Downstream populations
are dependent on the melt water for agriculture, drinking, and
power production."
###
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Water
Research Institute-Italian National Research Council are funding
this research.
Notes for Journalists
The researchers on this study of the Mount Everest region will present
a poster about their work on Tuesday morning, 14 May 2013, at the
Meeting of the Americas. The meeting is taking place from 14-17 May
at the Cancún Center, located at Blvd. Kukulkan Km 9, Zona Hotelera,
in Cancún, Mexico. For more information for members of the news
media about the meeting, please go to
http://moa.agu.org/2013/media-center/ or contact Sarah Charley.
Below is the abstract of the poster, which is being presented from
8:00 AM - 12:20 PM local Cancún time (Central Daylight Time,
UTC/GMT - 5 hours), in the Gran Cancún Poster Hall (Cancún Center)
as part of session C21B. "Cryosphere in a Warming Climate: Changes,
Impacts, and Adaptation / Posters" (Convener(s): Ninglian Wang
(Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Mark Serreze (NSIDC)):
TITLE: Glacier response to climate trend and climate variability in Mt.
Everest region (Nepal)
PRESENTATION TYPE: Assigned by Committee
CURRENT SECTION: Cryosphere (C)
CURRENT SESSION: C02. Cryosphere in a warming climate:
Changes, Impacts and Adaptation
AUTHORS (FIRST NAME, LAST NAME): Sudeep Thakuri1, 2,
Franco Salerno2, 3, Nicolas Guyennon2, Gaetano Viviano2, 3, Claudio
Smiraglia1, 3, Carlo D'Agata1, Gianni Tartari2, 3
INSTITUTIONS (ALL): 1. Graduate School of Earth, Environment
and Biodiversity, University of Milan, Milan, MB, Italy.
2. Water Research Institute, National Research Council , Brugherio,
MB, Italy.
3. Ev-K2-CNR Committee, Bergamo, BG, Italy.
ABSTRACT BODY: This study is conducted with the aim of coupling
the climatic dynamics with glaciers variations. The glaciers in the Mt.
Everest region in Nepal Himalaya are characterized by the debris-
mantle in most of their ablation zone and are controlled by the south-
Asian summer monsoon and precipitation due to mid-latitude westerly.
We analyzed variations in glacier surface and snowline altitude for the
glaciers/ice mass in the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (area:
1148 km2), using cartography and remote imaging since 1950s to 2011
and uncertainties associated, providing a longest time series of glacier
variations in this region. The glacier surface area had loss of 14.3±5.9
% (0.27 % yr-1) from 396.2 km2 to 339.5 km2 in 1958 to 2011 with
the loss by 0.12 % yr-1 in 1958-75 and 0.70 % yr-1 in recent years.
The smaller glaciers with END
Scientists find extensive glacial retreat in Mount Everest region
2013-05-14
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New program successful in reducing service and substance use among frequent health care users
2013-05-14
TORONTO, May 14, 2013—A program co-led by St. Michael's Hospital could be the next widely used model to treat patients who are frequent users of the health care system and have severe addictions, often complicated by homelessness and mental health problems.
The Toronto Community Addiction Team (TCAT) was developed to improve health and social outcomes for people with addictions who are frequent users of health services by providing one-on-one intensive case management from a harm reduction approach. The team works with clients to provide services such as individual therapy, ...
First precise MEMS output measurement technique unveiled
2013-05-14
Tuesday 14th May, Washington DC - The commercial application of MEMS, or micro-electro-mechanical systems, will receive a major boost today following the presentation of a brand new way to accurately measure the power requirements and outputs of all existing and future devices. The cheap and easy to apply technique will be presented for the first time today at the TechConnect World Conference 2013 by a research team from Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais (LNE) in France. The researchers believe it will help manufacturers improve product performance, develop ...
Wayne State researcher's technique helps robotic vehicles find their way
2013-05-14
DETROIT — A Wayne State University researcher understands that the three most important things about real estate also apply to small ground robotic vehicles: location, location, location.
In a paper recently published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Weisong Shi, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering, describes his development of a technique called LOBOT that provides accurate, real-time, 3-D positions in both indoor and outdoor environments. The project was supported in part by the Wayne State ...
Alzheimer's markers predict start of mental decline
2013-05-14
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have helped identify many of the biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease that could potentially predict which patients will develop the disorder later in life. Now, studying spinal fluid samples and health data from 201 research participants at the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the researchers have shown the markers are accurate predictors of Alzheimer's years before symptoms develop.
"We wanted to see if one marker was better than the other in predicting which of our participants ...
Engineered biomaterial could improve success of medical implants
2013-05-14
It's a familiar scenario – a patient receives a medical implant and days later, the body attacks the artificial valve or device, causing complications to an already compromised system.
Expensive, state-of-the-art medical devices and surgeries often are thwarted by the body's natural response to attack something in the tissue that appears foreign. Now, University of Washington engineers have demonstrated in mice a way to prevent this sort of response. Their findings were published online this week in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
The UW researchers created a synthetic ...
Pitt chemists demonstrate nanoscale alloys so bright they could have potential medical applications
2013-05-14
PITTSBURGH—Alloys like bronze and steel have been transformational for centuries, yielding top-of-the-line machines necessary for industry. As scientists move toward nanotechnology, however, the focus has shifted toward creating alloys at the nanometer scale—producing materials with properties unlike their predecessors.
Now, research at the University of Pittsburgh demonstrates that nanometer-scale alloys possess the ability to emit light so bright they could have potential applications in medicine. The findings have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical ...
Human disease leptospirosis identified in new species, the banded mongoose, in Africa
2013-05-14
The newest public health threat in Africa, scientists have found, is coming from a previously unknown source: the banded mongoose.
Leptospirosis, the disease is called. And the banded mongoose carries it.
Leptospirosis is the world's most common illness transmitted to humans by animals. It's a two-phase disease that begins with flu-like symptoms. If untreated, it can cause meningitis, liver damage, pulmonary hemorrhage, renal failure and death.
"The problem in Botswana and much of Africa is that leptospirosis may remain unidentified in animal populations but contribute ...
Mining the botulinum genome
2013-05-14
The toxin that causes botulism is the most potent that we know of. Eating an amount of toxin just 1000th the weight of a grain of salt can be fatal, which is why so much effort has been put into keeping Clostridium botulinum, which produces the toxin, out of our food.
The Institute of Food Research on the Norwich Research Park has been part of that effort through studying the bacteria and the way they survive, multiply and cause such harm. In new research, IFR scientists have been mining the genome of C. botulinum to uncover new information about the toxin genes.
There ...
Studies support population-based efforts to lower excessive dietary sodium intakes
2013-05-14
WASHINGTON -- Recent studies that examine links between sodium consumption and health outcomes support recommendations to lower sodium intake from the very high levels some Americans consume now, but evidence from these studies does not support reduction in sodium intake to below 2,300 mg per day, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.
Despite efforts over the past several decades to reduce dietary intake of sodium, a main component of table salt, the average American adult still consumes 3,400 mg or more of sodium a day – equivalent to about 1 ½ teaspoons ...
A better way to prevent child abuse
2013-05-14
New research at The University of Nottingham is calling for changes to a government scheme which engages community nurses in the prevention of child abuse and neglect in the home as part of a maternal and child health care programme.
The study, published online by the Journal of Public Health, has found that despite being set up to help reduce the numbers of child abuse cases, the £10 million Family Nurse Partnership will only be able to tackle around 10% of families involved in child maltreatment.
And, the researchers say, by using different, less common risk factors ...