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Quantifying ice mass loss caused by the replacement of glacial ice with lake water

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Subaqueous glacier mass losses are not accounted for by traditional geodetic mass balance calculations. Estimates based on proglacial lake volume changes revealed that the mass loss of glaciers terminating into lakes in the greater Himalaya during 2000−2020 was previously underestimated by approximately 6.5%, with the largest underestimation in the central Himalaya.

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Fig. 1: Subaqueous mass loss of lake-terminating glaciers that is not accounted for by geodetic methods.

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This is a summary of: Zhang, G. et al. Underestimated mass loss from lake-terminating glaciers in the greater Himalaya. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01150-1 (2023).

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Quantifying ice mass loss caused by the replacement of glacial ice with lake water. Nat. Geosci. 16, 290–291 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01151-0

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