Present state and dynamics of glacio-nival systems of Mongun-Taiga and Tavan-Bogdo-Ola mountain massifs

Abstract

Исследуются современная динамика параметров климата юго-восточного Алтая и реакция на них элементов нивально-гляциальных систем: снежников, ледников и каменно-ледовых образований. Установлено замедление отступания концов ледников в 1967-1981 и 2008-2013 гг., согласующееся с периодами относительного похолодания и увеличения осадков. Выполнены предварительные балансовые расчёты для 2012/13 гляциологического года и вычислены значения индекса баланса массы для периода 1966-2013 гг. для ледника Селиверстова. Приведены результаты измерений скоростей термокарстовых процессов на моренах малой ледниковой эпохи, ядро которых сложено погребённым ледниковым льдом. Present-day dynamics of climate characteristics in SouthEast Altai and response of glacio-nival systems (snow patches, glaciers, stone-ice formations to the climate changes are studied. Retreats of glacier snouts were found to slow down in 1967-1981 and 2008-2013, and that correlated well with periods of relative cooling and precipitation increasing. Preliminary balance calculations were made for the glaciological year 2012/13, and values of the mass balance index were calculated for the Seliverstov Glacier for 1966-2013. The results of the thermokarst rate measurements on the Little Ice Age moraines whose ice cores consist of buried glacier ice are presented.

Post-Little Ice Age Glacier Recession in the North-Chuya Ridge and Dynamics of the Bolshoi Maashei Glacier, Altai

“…Here, the warming of the 1990s was also the reason for the acceleration of the reduction, but it was combined with a decrease in the amount of precipitation (meteorological station Mugur-Aksy), so the decrease in the mass balance in these years was especially sharp. On the contrary, in the last 20 years, the amount of precipitation has been increasing and there has been some increase in the mass balance, which, nevertheless, has not yet allowed it to reach the level before the 1990s [82,83].…”