Retreating Rate of Chaturangi Glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India Derived from Kinematic GPS Survey and Satellite Data

Bisht, Himani; Rani, Meenu; Kumar, K.G.; Sah, Saurabh; Arya, Prakash Chandra

doi:10.18520/cs/v116/i2/304-311

Cited by 19 publications

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“…The Chaturangi glacier (30° 54′ 08″-30° 54′ 28″ N:79° 15′ 19″-79° 6′ 18″ E), situated in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India (Fig. 1), is east-west-flowing 21.1 km long valley glacier and has approximately 43.83 km 2 glaciated area (Bisht et al 2019) and around 214.8 km 2 catchment area (Orr et al 2019). It is the longest inactive (not joined with main trunk) tributary of the Gangotri glacier, earlier was connected to Gangotri until 1971 (Vohra 1988;Bisht et al 2020b), and detached from the main trunk after 1989 (Bisht et al 2019).…”

Section: Study Area and Regional Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of solute sources in the meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

et al. 2022

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This paper presents an insight on major ion chemistry and identification of solute sources in meltwater of Chaturangi glacier throughout the ablation period 2015 and 2016. The results indicate that meltwater is slightly acidic with Ca–HCO3 and Mg–HCO3 dominated hydrochemical facies. In meltwater, Ca2+ and HCO3− are the most dominant cation and anion, respectively. The Water Quality Index values show that the quality of meltwater is good for both the ablation seasons. An important factor governing the quality of water is the residence time for dissolving minerals from the rocks. Mineralogy of surrounding rocks and Gibbs plot suggest that the meltwater ionic concentration is mostly controlled by weathering of rocks with slight contribution from atmospheric aerosols. For meltwater, the average equivalent ratios of Na/Cl and K/Cl were calculated as 3.36 ± 1.29 and 2.29 ± 0.62 in 2015 and 1.39 ± 0.6 and 0.8 ± 0.2 in 2016, which are considerably higher than the marine aerosols (Na/Cl = 0.85 and K/Cl = 0.017), it also confirmed the less contribution of atmospheric input in meltwater. The petrographic analysis of surrounding rocks indicate positive relationship among the cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+) and mineral abundance. Our observations suggest that the bedrock mineralogy and weathering reactions together with amount and composition of atmospheric inputs are the main sources of ions, dissolved in the glacier meltwater. It might be due to rate of chemical reaction which leads decomposition of rocks and leaching of minerals into the meltwater. Additionally, the geology of the area plays a significant as the influence of geology and climate on water quality is observed by the quantity and types of dissolved materials and amount of the sediment carried by the streams. The elevated proportion of Ca + Mg in total cations and high Ca + Mg/(Na + K ratios, 1.47 ± 0.14 in the year 2015 and 1.44 ± 0.28 in 2016 clearly reveal that the ionic composition is primarily controlled by carbonate weathering and partly by silicate weathering. Further, the low Na + K/TZ− ratio (0.41 ± 0.02) and (0.22 ± 0.05) in 2015 and 2016, respectively also supports that carbonate weathering is main geochemical process controlling the hydrochemistry of meltwater. In addition, the ion denudation rate was calculated for both the years. The results show that the cation denudation rate of meltwater was 32.84 and 22.30 ton/km2/ablation during 2015 and 2016, respectively, whereas the anion denudation rate was found to be 205.43 in 2015 and 170.24 ton/km2/ablation in 2016.

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Section: Study Area and Regional Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, the Chaturangi glacier snout (Fig. 2a) is situated at 4,380 m altitude from where the meltwater stream (river Chaturangi) emerges (Bisht et al 2019). The glacier keeps changing because of splitting of ice blocks from the terminus and subsidence at glacier portal (Bisht et al 2020a).…”

Section: Study Area and Regional Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of solute sources in the meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

et al. 2022

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“…The Chaturangi glacier (30°54' 08"-30deg 54' 28" N and 79deg 15' 19"-79deg 6' 18" E), situated in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India (Figure 1) is 21.1 km long east-west-flowing valley type glacier which occupies an area of about 43.83 km 2 (Bisht, Rani, Kumar, Sah, & Arya, 2019) with a catchment area of about 214.8 km 2 (Orr, Owen, Saha, & Caffee, 2019). It is the longest inactive tributary glacier (not connected to the main trunk) of the Gangotri glacier system, connected with the Gangotri glacier till 1971 (Vohra, 1988;Bisht et al, 2020b), band was detached from the main trunk after 1989 (Bisht et al, 2019). At present, the snout of the Chaturangi glacier (Figure 2a) is located at 4,380 m from where the meltwater stream (Chaturangi river) originates (Bisht et al, 2019).…”

Section: Study Area and Regional Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is the longest inactive tributary glacier (not connected to the main trunk) of the Gangotri glacier system, connected with the Gangotri glacier till 1971 (Vohra, 1988;Bisht et al, 2020b), band was detached from the main trunk after 1989 (Bisht et al, 2019). At present, the snout of the Chaturangi glacier (Figure 2a) is located at 4,380 m from where the meltwater stream (Chaturangi river) originates (Bisht et al, 2019). The shape of the glacier snout keeps changing due to splitting of ice blocks from the terminus and subsidence at glacier portal (Bisht et al, 2020a).…”

Section: Study Area and Regional Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the petrographic analysis, we suggest that the cations such as Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Na + and K + show a good relationship with the mineral abundance of the rocks. The main sources of dissolved ions and mechanism controlling hydrogeochemistry of glacier meltwater can also be assessed on the basis of relationship among the ions and their ratios (Bisht et al, 2018;Kumar et al, 2019;Sharma et al, 2013). The scatter plot between (Ca + Mg) and TZ + (Figure 5) shows that all plotted points fall above the 1:1 equiline with an average ratio of (0.59 ± 0.02) in 2015 and (0.58 ± 0.04) in 2016 (Table 1).…”

Section: Sources Of Solutes In the Meltwatermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of weathering processes to determine the solute sources in meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

Bisht

Kotlia

Kumar

et al. 2020

Preprint

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This paper presents an insight on the major ion chemistry of Chaturangi glacier meltwater and chemical weathering processes to identify ionic sources and factors controlling the ionic composition of meltwater during the ablation year 2015 and 2016. The analytical results show that the meltwater is slightly acidic in nature with Mg-HCO3 and Ca-HCO3 dominated hydrochemical facies in years 2015 and 2016 respectively. In glacier meltwater, Ca2+ is the most dominant cation and HCO3-is the most dominant anion in both the years. Due to less anthropogenic influence, chemical weathering of the surrounding rocks is the foremost mechanism, controlling the hydrogeochemistry of meltwater. The gibbs plot and mineralogy of surrounding rocks suggests that ionic concentration of meltwater is mainly controlled by rock weathering with little contribution from the atmosphere. A comparatively higher contribution of (Ca+Mg) in total cations and higher elemental ratio of (Ca+Mg)/(Na+K) (1.47±0.14) and (1.44±0.28) in year 2015 and 2016 respectively, clearly demonstrates that chemical composition is mainly controlled by carbonate weathering and partly by silicate weathering. Furthermore, the low elemental ratio of (Na+K)/TZ-(0.41±0.02) and (0.22±0.05) in 2015 and 2016 respectively also suggests that carbonate weathering is a dominant geochemical process controlling meltwater chemistry of the study area. In addition the ion denudation rate was also calculated for both the years. The results shows that cation denudation rate of meltwater of Chaturangi glacier were 32.84 and 22.30 ton/km2/ablation during 2015 and 2016 respectively, whereas the anion denudation rates were 205.43 and 170.24 ton/km2/ablation in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

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Snow Cover and Land Surface Temperature Assessment of Mana Basin Uttarakhand India Using MODIS Satellite Data

Rawat

Karwariya

Raushan

et al. 2021

Water, Cryosphere, and Climate Change in the Himalayas

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Retreating Rate of Chaturangi Glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India Derived from Kinematic GPS Survey and Satellite Data

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of solute sources in the meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of solute sources in the meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

Hydrogeochemical analysis and identification of weathering processes to determine the solute sources in meltwater of Chaturangi glacier, Garhwal Himalaya, India

Snow Cover and Land Surface Temperature Assessment of Mana Basin Uttarakhand India Using MODIS Satellite Data

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