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Hydrogeochemistry of the Chhota Shigri glacier meltwater, Chandra basin, Himachal Pradesh, India: solute acquisition processes, dissolved load and chemical weathering rates

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Abstract

The chemical compositions of various ions in meltwater of the Chhota Shigri glacier were analysed during the observation period from May to October 2010. Total 164 samples of meltwater were collected in two times a day at 8.0 a.m and 6.0 p.m. Bicarbonate and calcium were the dominant anion and cation in meltwater of the investigation area. High ratios of (Ca + Mg) versus TZ+ and (Ca + Mg) versus (Na + K) demonstrate that hydrogeochemistry of the study area was mainly governed by carbonate type weathering. The average sulphate mass fraction of meltwater was computed to be 0.31 ± 0.12, showing dominancy of bicarbonate over sulphate. This excess bicarbonate would be generated by an alternative proton supply mechanism due to biological activities in the bed rock lithology and sulphide oxidation may be about the same as carbonation as a driver of chemical weathering at Chhota Shigri glacier. In general, major ions and total dissolved solid concentrations showed decreasing trend with increasing discharge from the study area. The average daily mean dissolved load of this glacier was much lower than that of the Gangotri glacier, which may be due to low meltwater runoff and lithology of the investigation area. The cation weathering rates of study area for early, peak and late melt seasons were computed to be 694, 1631 and 481 meq m−2 a−1, respectively. The average value of chemical denudation rates of the Chhota Shigri glacier meltwater was found lower than that of the Dokriani glacier.

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Acknowledgements

We thank to Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India for financial support for this research work. Dr. P. Sharma, Dr. J.G. Pottakkal and Dr. A. Linda are acknowledged for collection of few meltwater samples during the study period. Virendra Bahadur Singh is grateful to Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for granting National Postdoctoral Fellowship (Reference No. PDF/2016/000286) to him. The authors are also thankful for partial funding given to us by SAC, CIFIPRA, INDICE, CHARIS, GLACINDIA and IRD.

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  1. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Virendra Bahadur Singh & AL. Ramanathan

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This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Water in Central Asia”, guest edited by Daniel Karthe, Iskandar Abdullaev, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Dietrich Borchardt, Sergey Chalov, Jerker Jarsjö, Lanhai Li and Jeff Nittrouer.

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Singh, V.B., Ramanathan, A. Hydrogeochemistry of the Chhota Shigri glacier meltwater, Chandra basin, Himachal Pradesh, India: solute acquisition processes, dissolved load and chemical weathering rates. Environ Earth Sci 76, 223 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-6465-4

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