Glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an incredible rate in recent decades due to global warming. This is worrying because it threatens water supplies for millions of people in Asia and has the potential to drive sea level rise.
Based on a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers found that the large Himalayan ice sheet is shrinking 10 times faster in the last 40 years than in the previous seven centuries.
Ice loss from nearly 15,000 ice sheets in the Himalayas is happening so fast compared to other parts of the world, even researchers say the rate is already extraordinary.
"Our findings clearly show that ice is now disappearing from Himalayan glaciers at levels at least 10 times higher than the average level in the previous few centuries," said study author Jonathan Carrivick from the University of Leeds School of Geography. (21/12/2021).
"This acceleration in the rate of loss has only emerged in the last few decades, and coincides with human-caused climate change."
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The Himalayas are sometimes referred to as Earth's third pole because they contain the third largest number of ice glaciers in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic.
Melting ice in the Himalayas is not only threatening agriculture and water supplies for millions of people in Asia, it is also contributing to rising sea levels that threaten communities living in coastal areas.
Carrivick and colleagues used satellite photos and digital models to reconstruct nearly 15,000 Himalayan glaciers to the shape and size of the Little Ice Age that occurred 400-700 years ago. They found the total area covered by ice has shrunk by about 40% from its peak to today.
This 40% shrinkage is equivalent to 390 to 586 cubic kilometers of ice, which if melted could raise sea levels by 0.92 to 1.38 mm.
According to researchers, the main cause of the Himalayan glaciers melting faster is climate change caused by humans, as well as higher sea temperatures. Changes in monsoons in South Asia also have a role in the disappearance of ice in the Himalayas.
Based on NASA satellite data, global sea level will rise between 60 cm and 180 cm by 2100. Scientists have warned that sea levels will continue to rise to dangerous levels if global warming rises to 3 degrees Celsius.
