Abstract
Accurate estimates of regional and global glacier mass require many field-based sample measurements that are widely distributed across an area of interest. The Sawir Mountains are an isolated mountain system in Central Asia and changes in glacier mass balance from this region have rarely been reported. In this study, we provide a comprehensive analysis of mass changes of the Muz Taw Glacier in the Sawir Mountains based on glaciological and geodetic measurements. The glaciological mass balance exhibited a strong variability during the period 2016–2020, with a range of values between − 1.29 and − 0.31 m water equivalent (w.e.) and a mean value of − 0.86 ± 0.16 m w.e. Differences in the surface elevation of the Muz Taw Glacier were determined from analysis of a topographic map (1:100,000 scale) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point-cloud data, with these data sources indicating an average surface elevation change of approximately − 33.36 ± 9.39 m or − 0.54 ± 0.15 m a−1 during 1959–2021. This thickness is roughly equivalent to half of the mean thickness of the glacier terminus, which has contributed to the negative geodetic mass balance of − 28.36 ± 8.23 m w.e. or − 0.46 ± 0.13 m w.e. a−1. Approximately twice as much mass has been lost from the Muz Taw Glacier during the past 5 years (2016–2020) than estimated by geodetic data, indicating that the mass loss of Muz Taw Glacier has continued unabated.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the staff from Tien Shan Glaciological Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for providing the field surveys.
Funding
This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (21JR7RA059), State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science (SKLCS-ZZ-2022), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program (2019QZKK0201), the Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition (TXSE) program (2021xjkk1401) and National Cryosphere Desert Data Center (20D03).
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Xu, C., Li, Z., Wang, F. et al. Unabated wastage of the Muz Taw Glacier in the Sawir Mountains during 1959–2021. Environ Earth Sci 82, 30 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10724-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10724-y