Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions ›› 2015, Vol. 7 ›› Issue (3): 206-211.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00206

• ARTICLES • Previous Articles    

Movement and variation of four typical glaciers in the Qilian Mountains, northwestern China

ZheFan Jing, Kun Wang, Li Liu   

  1. Key State Laboratory of Cryosphere, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
  • Received:2014-10-15 Revised:2015-01-25 Published:2018-11-23
  • Contact: Kun Wang, wangkunsdau@163.com E-mail:wangkunsdau@163.com
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by CAS (KJZD-EW-G03-04), the Global Change Research Program of China (No. 2010CB951404) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41071043), and we acknowledge the support of these programs. We also thank those who improved the manuscript.

Abstract: We selected four typical glaciers in the Qilian Mountains and investigated their movements and variation using advanced technologies such as remote sensing, photographic measurements, and global positioning systems. The velocity of glacier movements in the Qilian Mountains is relatively low, and there has been no significant variation during the past 50 years. Glacier motion has maintained a normal style. The movement velocity of Laohugou Glacier No. 12 presented a decreasing trend (by 48%) from 1960 to 2012. The movement velocity of the Qiyi Glacier also presented a decreasing trend (by 48.1%) from 1958 to 2012; it decreased by 29.4% from 1958 to 1977 and by 26.5% from 1977 to 2012. Therefore, the Qiyi Glacier's movement velocity varied greatly over the earlier 20 years (1958-1977), but presented a small decreasing trend during the latter 30 years (1977-2012). By comparing the movement velocity variation of these typical glaciers, we determined that the extent of variation was consistent among large glaciers (such as Laohugou Glacier No. 12) and small glaciers (such as the Qiyi Glacier and Yanglonghe Glacier No. 5), despite their different sizes.

Key words: typical glaciers, movement velocity, variation, extent, Qilian Mountains

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