monitoring glacier variations on geladandong mountain central tibetan plateau from 1969 to 2002 using remote sensing and gis technologies using geographical information system gis and remote sensing technologies we describe quantitative measurements of glacier variations in the geladandong mountain region of central tibet data from landsat images at three different times 1973 76 1992 and 2002 are compared with glacier areas digitized from a topographic map based on aerial photographs taken in 1969 we find that while some glaciers have advanced during the past 30 years others have retreated the area of retreat is much larger than that of advance the total glacier area has decreased from 889 km 2 in 1969 to 847 km 2 in 2002 a reduction of almost 43 km 2 i e 4 8 decrease or an average of 1 29 km 2 a 1 the variation of glacier area in the geladandong mountain region is not as large as in other regions within the tibetan plateau glacier areas decreased 4 7 km 2 i e an average of 0 68 km 2 a 1 during 1969 76 15 4 km 2 0 96 km 2 a 1 during 1976 92 and 22 4 km 2 2 24 km 2 a 1 during 1992 2002 suggesting accelerated glacier retreat in recent years the recession rates of glacier termini also increased it is likely that the increase in summer air temperature is the major reason for glacier shrinkage in the geladandong mountain region

glaciological applications with landsat 7 imagery early assessments enhanced thematic mapper plus etm data from landsat 7 are providing glaciologists with an ever expanding data set that makes a comprehensive monitoring of the global cryosphere feasible for the first time in history examples of etm data illustrate its ability to satisfy major scientific needs in the glaciological subdisciplines of sea ice glacier ice cap and ice sheet research with high resolution optical satellite imagery examples shown include use as proxy ground truth positioning glacier termini and snowlines and determining snow facies boundaries the additional etm panchromatic band at a higher spatial resolution of 15 m improves the spatial accuracy of these applications the glaciological aspects of the landsat 7 long term acquisition plan are discussed to show how the timing and location of the image acquisitions will generate a cryospheric data set of unprecedented utility for future research

tsunami deposits in a lacustrine sequence of the sanriku coast northeast japan abstract lacustrine deposits of the pacific coast of northeast japan consisting mostly of black organic mud contain intercalated thin beds of well sorted medium sand examination of the deposits from a coastal site of sanriku has revealed that sand grains are of marine origin and are fractions of deposits in marshy ponds transported from the littoral environment by a great flooding of seawater the mode of sedimentation shown in the thin beds of sand implies that they were deposited by tsunamis each with a maximum rise of 1 m or more above sea level

glacier shrinkage in the ebinur lake basin tien shan china during the past 40 years the ebinur lake basin tien shan china was described in the early 20th century as the green labyrinth this relatively productive area supports agriculture and stands in contrast to the regional aridity glacier melt runoff is an important source of water for this arid region and has played a significant role in its economic development however over the past 40 years the ecology and environment of the region have seriously degenerated due to human activity and climate change to investigate changes in glacier water supply measurements from two reference glaciers were performed and used to validate satellite data and historical data for glaciers in the water catchment variability in regional glacier total area and volume over the past 40 years was reconstructed from historical documents aerial photographs and remote sensing data our investigations of 446 glaciers showed that from 1964 to 2004 the total glacier area decreased by 14 7 0 4 a 1 corresponding to an estimated volume change of 20 5 during this period the most dramatic decrease in glacier area corresponded to a rapid rise in temperature this reduction in glacier area is accelerating and impacting the future sustainability of the region s water resources

quantifying global warming from the retreat of glaciers records of glacier fluctuations compiled by the world glacier monitoring service can be used to derive an independent estimate of global warming during the last 100 years records of different glaciers are made comparable by a two step scaling procedure one allowing for differences in glacier geometry the other for differences in climate sensitivity the retreat of glaciers during the last 100 years appears to be coherent over the globe on the basis of modeling of the climate sensitivity of glaciers the observed glacier retreat can be explained by a linear warming trend of 0 66 kelvin per century

weak monsoon event at 4 2 ka recorded in sediment from lake rara himalayas abstract the strength of the indian summer monsoon varied significantly on centennial to millennial timescales during the holocene among these variations a weak summer monsoon event occurred approximately at 4 ka the so called 4 2 ka event this event is considered to have been a relatively sustained and widespread phenomenon at regional scales across southern asia to eastern africa however little is known about the impact of such variations in the himalayas a key location for understanding the monsoon system here we present a record of changes in summer monsoon strength during the holocene from lake rara western nepal using redox sensitive elements mn ti and mn fe measured by x ray fluorescence xrf core scanner in addition organic matter properties toc 13c and c n and changes in the 14c age offset between bulk organic matter and leaf matter namely the old carbon offset are used to augment the environmental reconstruction collectively the data indicate a period of prolonged weak monsoon interval at around 4 ka the timing of onset and recovery from the event observed at lake rara exhibits particular similarity with changes in the indus river discharge this is the first record of the 4 2 ka event from the himalayas based on a relatively well constructed age model using 14c dates that are not influenced by reservoir effects these findings provide an important step towards better understanding the spatial and temporal variability in the holocene indian monsoon

contribution of small glaciers to global sea level observed long term changes in glacier volume and hydrometeorological mass balance models yield data on the transfer of water from glaciers excluding those in greenland and antarctica to the oceans the average observed volume change for the period 1900 to 1961 is scaled to a global average by use of the seasonal amplitude of the mass balance these data are used to calibrate the models to estimate the changing contribution of glaciers to sea level for the period 1884 to 1975 although the error band is large these glaciers appear to account for a third to half of observed rise in sea level approximately that fraction not explained by thermal expansion of the ocean

reexamination of the a d 869 jogan earthquake size from tsunami deposit distribution simulated flow depth and velocity the rupture parameters and magnitude of the a d 869 jogan earthquake a predecessor of the 2011 tohoku earthquake were previously estimated by matching tsunami deposit distributions with simulated inundation areas the tsunami inundation associated with the 2011 tohoku earthquake however extended farther inland than the sandy tsunami deposits numerical simulation of the 2011 tsunami indicated that flow depths and velocities were approximately 1 m and 0 6 m s respectively at the most inland sand deposit sites on the ishinomaki and sendai plains while these values depend on the assumed bottom roughness we used these values to compare tsunami deposits and inundation simulation of the 869 jogan earthquake from both uniform slip and 2011 type variable slip fault models the results showed that the rupture length of the 869 jogan earthquake was at least 200 km and its minimum moment magnitude was 8 6

deposition of sediments of diverse sizes by the 2011 tohoku oki tsunami at miyako city japan abstract this paper reports the transport and deposition of sediments of various sizes ranging from mud to boulders by the 2011 tohoku oki tsunami at miyako city japan where the tsunami reached 28 1 m above sea level at the coast and inundated up to 1750 m inland mud to cobble sized sediments formed layered deposits that covered the lowland where paddy fields had been these layered deposits were remarkably thick 0 5 1 0 m near the beach where they were composed mainly of gravels and they generally thinned and fined inland to sand and mud deposits a few centimeters thick separate from the layered deposits many boulders consisting of fragments of the tsunami barrier and other structures wave dissipating blocks and volcanic rocks were found on the lowland mainly in three clusters boulder size decreased abruptly about 750 m inland from the shoreline where the thickness and grain size of the layered deposits also showed a sharp decrease these findings suggest that a sudden deceleration of the wave flow velocity constrained by the local topography caused rapid deposition of both the layered deposits and boulders there interestingly the boulders were deposited on top of the layered deposit not buried within it this finding suggests that sand and gravel were transported in the bore front of the first wave and deposited before the arrival of the boulders seaward extending scours around large boulders showed that the boulders were not moved by the backwash flow although the backwash eroded the layered deposits to some extent the stratigraphic relationship between the layered deposits and boulders therefore suggests that both were probably deposited by the first wave

glacial lake evolution and glacier lake interactions in the poiqu river basin central himalaya 1964 2017 despite previous studies glacier lake interactions and future lake development in the poiqu river basin central himalaya are still not well understood we mapped glacial lakes glaciers their frontal positions and ice flow from optical remote sensing data and calculated glacier surface elevation change from digital terrain models during 1964 2017 the total glacial lake area increased by 110 glaciers retreated with an average rate of 1 4 km 2 a 1 between 1975 and 2015 based on rapid area expansion 150 and information from previous studies eight lakes were considered to be potentially dangerous glacial lakes corresponding lake terminating glaciers showed an overall retreat of 6 0 1 4 to 26 6 1 1 m a 1 and accompanying lake expansion the regional mean glacier elevation change was 0 39 0 13 m a 1 while the glaciers associated with the eight potentially dangerous lakes lowered by 0 71 0 05 m a 1 from 1974 to 2017 the mean ice flow speed of these glaciers was 10 m a 1 from 2013 to 2017 about double the mean for the entire study area analysis of these data along with climate observations suggests that ice melting and calving processes play the dominant role in driving lake enlargement modelling of future lake development shows where new lakes might emerge and existing lakes could expand with projected glacial recession

glacier surface area changes in sagarmatha national park nepal in the second half of the 20th century by comparison of historical maps we investigate variations in the surface area of glaciers in sagarmatha national park nepal during the second half of the 20th century through comparison of a map applicable to the late 1950s with the official map of nepal in the early 1990s the comparison reveals a slight overall decrease in glacier area by 4 9 from 403 9 to 384 6 km 2 a result which though potentially subject to errors arising from cartographic interpretation is in line with the area reductions found by other studies of asian glaciers we find that the areas of some individual glaciers the largest situated at higher altitudes increased during the study period this was most apparent for the glaciers oriented to the south with the increase occurring mainly in the glacier accumulation zones while the fronts tended to recede meanwhile the smaller glaciers situated lower and on steep basins experienced a reduction for the smaller glaciers the sections most affected by change were the accumulation zones and these glaciers showed a tendency for the front to advance in this region there is a lack of climate data for high altitudes nevertheless observations from stations situated around the park suggest that alongside temperature variations which are often considered the primary factor eliciting glacier response changes in precipitation play a significant role

response of monsoonal temperate glaciers to global warming since the little ice age abstract monsoonal temperate glaciers in china mainly occur in the southeastern part of qinghai tibetan plateau they constitute an area of 13203 2 km2 accounting for 22 2 of china s total glaciated area such glaciers are extremely sensitive to climatic warming due to their unique characters an inconsiderable rise in air temperature may lead to a significant rise in ela and a large shrinkage in glacier area since the maximum of the little ice age 17th century the mean temperature of monsoonal temperate glaciers in china has increased by 0 8 c and the glacier area has decreased by 3921 2 km2 an amount equivalent to 30 of the modern glacier area it is predicted that by the year 2100 the temperature in the monsoonal temperate glaciers of china will rise by 2 1 c the glacier area will decrease by 75 approximately 9900 km2 if the precipitation decreases the retreat of the glaciers will be even faster but the area reduction percentage of the glaciers will not exceed 80 this will no doubt pose a serious threat to the water resources and environment in these regions

full interseismic locking of the nankai and japan west kurile subduction zones an analysis of uniform elastic strain accumulation in japan constrained by permanent gps we analyze permanent global positioning system gps data obtained over japan between 1995 and 1997 to estimate the instantaneous interseismic coupling ratio of the seismogenic zones due to the subduction of the pacific and philippine sea plates below the japanese islands we first derive the gps strain rate fields that characterize the crustal deformation of southern and northern japan and invert them to determine the effective subduction velocity along the central nankai trough on one side and the japan west kurile trench on the other these reference free velocities are close to those predicted by plate motion models with respect to eurasia we conclude that the eurasian reference frame gives a good approximation to the subduction motion and that to first order both subduction zones were fully locked during the period of measurements we then test whether the coupling ratio shows local variations within the seismogenic zones to do this we divide the subduction interface into 35 km 30 km elements that we model by point source groups and we invert the gps velocity field referenced to eurasia to derive the coupling ratio between 0 and 1 on each fault element the results are coherent over the 3 years and confirm that both the central nankai and the japan west kurile seismogenic zones are homogeneously fully locked most of the coupling ratios are close to 1 and a few are close to 0 intermediate values are rare the zones of decoupling correspond either to strong postseismic afterslip associated with the 1994 sanriku oki interplate earthquake japan trench or to a small overestimation of the actual lower limit of the locked zone we conclude that within the resolution of the gps data and the model 1 partial coupling did not exist during these 3 years along the nankai and japan west kurile trenches 2 the small seismic coupling ratio previously derived from earthquakes analysis for the japan and kurile trenches may indicate that a significant part of the elastic energy is dissipated silently through slow earthquakes and postseismic afterslip and 3 the heterogeneous coseismic slip pattern observed for the large and great earthquakes that rupture both subduction zones is in great contrast to the homogeneous loading finally we discuss the nonelastic residual deformation within the frame of the long term deformation of the japanese islands

five decades of shrinkage of july 1st glacier qilian shan china a survey of july 1st glacier qilian shan china was carried out in 2002 previously the glacier s boundary had been recorded in 1956 and further research had been carried out in the mid 1970s and 1980s our survey reveals that area shrinkage and surface lowering have accelerated in the past 15 years surface elevation changes can result from changes in accumulation surface melting and emergence velocity the contributions of these elements to surface lowering are evaluated at the lower part of the glacier from observations of surface velocity ice thickness and precipitation and from temperature data near the glacier apart from the effect of glacier ice redistribution our analysis reveals quantitatively that the recent accelerated glacier shrinkage has been caused by increasing temperature furthermore it is established that meltwater discharge from the glacier in the past 17 years has increased due to glacier shrinkage by about 50 over that from 1975 to 1985

combination of srtm3 and repeat aster data for deriving alpine glacier flow velocities in the bhutan himalaya abstract the present study evaluates the fusion of dems from the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer aster instrument and the shuttle radar topography mission srtm the study area consists of high elevation glaciers draining through the rough topography of the bhutan himalayas it turns out that the aster derived and srtm3 dems have similar accuracy over the study area but the srtm3 dem contains less gross errors however for rough topography large sections of the srtm3 dem contain no data we therefore compile a combined srtm3 aster dem from this final composite master dem we produce repeat aster orthoimages from which we evaluate the dem quality and derive glacier surface velocities through image matching the glacier tongues north of the himalayan main ridge which enter the tibet plateau show maximum surface velocities in the order of 100 200 m year 1 in contrast the ice within the glacier tongues south of the main ridge flows with a few tens of meters per year these findings have a number of implications among others for glacier dynamics glacier response to climate change glacier lake development or glacial erosion the study indicates that space based remote sensing can provide new insights into the magnitude of selected surface processes and feedback mechanisms that govern mountain geodynamics

glacier changes in the central and northern tien shan during the last 140 years based on surface and remote sensing data this research presents a precise evaluation of the recession of akshiirak and ala archa glaciers tien shan central asia based on data of geodetic surveys from 1861 69 aerial photographs from 1943 1963 1977 and 1981 1 25 000 scale topographic maps and srtm and aster data from 2000 03 the akshiirak glacierized massif in the central tien shan contains 178 glaciers covering 371 6 km 2 and the ala archa glacier basin in the northern tien shan contains 48 glaciers covering 36 31 km 2 the tien shan glaciers retreated as much as 3 km from the 1860s to 2003 area shrinkage of akshiirak and ala archa was 4 2 and 5 1 respectively from 1943 to 1977 and 8 7 and 10 6 respectively from 1977 to 2003 the volume of the akshiirak glaciers was reduced by 3 566 km 3 from 1943 to 1977 and 6 145 km 3 from 1977 to 2000 the total reduction of the tien shan glaciers is 14 2 during the last 60 years 1943 2003 the northern and central tien shan have not experienced a significant precipitation increase during the last 100 years but they have experienced an increase in summer air temperatures especially observable since the 1970s which accelerated the recession of the tien shan glaciers

time varying interseismic strain rates and similar seismic ruptures on the nias simeulue patch of the sunda megathrust fossil coral microatolls from fringing reefs above the great m w 8 6 megathrust rupture of 2005 record uplift during the historically reported great earthquake of 1861 such evidence spans nearly the entire 400 km strike length of the 2005 rupture which was previously shown to be bounded by two persistent barriers to seismic rupture moreover at sites where we have constrained the 1861 uplift amplitude it is comparable to uplift in 2005 thus the 1861 and 2005 ruptures appear to be similar in both extent and magnitude at one site an uplift around ad 1422 also appears to mimic the amount of uplift in 2005 the high degree of similarity among certain ruptures of this nias simeulue section of the sunda megathrust contrasts with the substantial disparities amongst ruptures along other sections of the sumatran portion of the sunda megathrust at a site on the northwestern tip of nias reefs also rose during an earthquake in ad 1843 known historically for its damaging tsunami along the eastern coast of the island the coral microatolls also record interseismic vertical deformation at annual to decadal resolution spanning decades to more than a century before each earthquake the corals demonstrate significant changes over time in the rates of interseismic deformation on southern simeulue interseismic subsidence rates were low between 1740 and 1820 but abruptly increased by a factor of 4 10 two to four decades before the 1861 rupture this may indicate that full coupling or deep locking of the megathrust began only a few decades before the great earthquake in the banyak islands near the pivot line separating coseismic uplift from subsidence in 2005 ongoing interseismic subsidence switched to steady uplift from 1966 until 1981 suggesting a 15 year long slow slip event with slip velocities at more than 120 of the plate convergence rate

recession of the southern part of barnes ice cap baffin island canada between 1961 and 1993 determined from digital mapping of landsat tm changes along the margin of the southern half of the 5900 km 2 barnes ice cap have been assessed using 1993 landsat tm imagery in comparison with digitized 1 50 000 nts maps based on 1961 photogrammetry the average recession over the 183 km long southern perimeter was found to be at least 4 m a 1 with no significant difference between the southeast and southwest sectors viewed in conjunction with the sustained retreat previously reported for the northwest margin these results indicate that a general reduction in the size of barnes ice cap is occurring the present retreat phase began under a regional climate warming in the late 19th to early 20th century period and continues while the record of the ablation season temperature since the midcentury has not shown any significant trend

erosion of a paleo tsunami record by the 2011 tohoku oki tsunami along the southern sendai plain abstract erosion of sediment beneath a coastal lake by the 2011 tohoku oki tsunami largely removed up to 1100 years of the geologic record of tsunami and tephra deposition that lost geologic record included the 1611 keicho tsunami deposit and the 915 to a tephra amounting to ca 1 4 m of lake bottom sediment as judged from comparison of stratigraphy at four locations examined before and after the 2011 tsunami the tsunami replaced the eroded sediment with a 7 15 cm thick sand sheet and an overlying 20 60 cm thick layer of black mud both 2011 deposit components were likely derived from sediment eroded along the tsunami flow path including granite rock fragments downstream of the lake basin and mainly reworked lake floor sediment erosion and redeposition of lake floor sediment by tsunami inundation can introduce uncertainty to sandy tsunami deposit age estimation the 2011 tsunami sand might be dated a few hundred years older than the actual age if one overlooks the reworked muddy tsunami deposit in its facies the mud closely resembles mud deposited from the usual environment but is mixed with sediments of various ages therefore it is important to identify the reworked muddy tsunami deposit based on geochemistry and micropaleontology to avoid misinterpretation of the depositional age of tsunami deposits erosion of deposits beneath the lake floor also erases evidence leaving an incomplete paleo tsunami history reconstructing geological records of tsunamis in coastal lakes requires careful evaluation of the possible effects of tsunami erosion identifying sediment sources mapping stratigraphic unconformities and constructing detailed age depth models to test for gaps in sedimentation can produce important insights

changes in the elevation and extent of two glaciers along the yanglonghe river qilian shan china we use topographic maps historical data multispectral satellite data and real time kinematic gps data to analyze glacier area length and ice elevation changes of two glaciers in the central qilian shan china between 1956 and 2007 we find that the fronts of yanglonghe glacier no 1 5y432a1 and yanglonghe glacier no 5 5y432a5 have retreated by 266 5 37 1 m 5 2 0 73 m a 1 and 181 4 37 1 m 3 6 0 73 m a 1 respectively and that this retreat accelerated after 1999 during the study period the glacier areas decreased by 4 1 and 15 9 respectively in addition spatially non uniform thinning which averaged 20 2 11 m 0 4 0 22 m a 1 and 16 9 11 m 0 33 0 22 m a 1 in the ablation areas of 5y432a1 and 5y432a5 respectively is observed using digital elevation models constructed using data from 1956 1977 and 2007 the ice volume depletion from 5y432a1 2 91 10 7 m 3 was 2 7 times greater than from the smaller 5y432a5 1 08 10 7 m 3 based on records from nearby tuole weather station increasing annual temperatures are principally responsible for the observed glacier thinning and retreat

glacier variations in the naimona nyi region western himalaya in the last three decades this work quantifies glacier variations in the naimona nyi area of the western himalaya by integrating glacier spatial data from aster and the landsat series of satellite imagery at four different times 1976 1990 1999 and 2003 comparison of the results from individual images with those from the integrated method indicates that the integrated approach provides a better result glacier variations were mapped and analyzed discrepancies between images could be detected and removed from the integrated data using remap tables in arc info grid both graphically and numerically our results show that glaciers in the region both retreated and advanced during the last 28 years however retreat dominates the variation of glaciers in the western himalayan region is dramatic compared with other regions in high asia from 1976 to 2003 glacier area decreased from 84 41 km 2 to 77 29 km 2 sequential images show that glacier areas shrank by 0 17 0 19 and 0 77 km 2 a 1 on average during the periods 1976 90 1990 99 and 1999 2003 respectively suggesting that glacier retreat has accelerated

historical tsunami and storm deposits during the last five centuries on the sanriku coast japan abstract nine event deposits in a small alluvial valley along the sanriku coast japan were correlated with historical tsunamis and storms that have been recorded in this region since the 15th century we identified nine sandy layers in 15 geo slices collected at distances ranging from 140 to 260 m from the coast in a lowland back marsh protected from the sea by a high sandy ridge based on their sedimentary characteristics grain size distribution and marine microfossil assemblages namely coccoliths these event layers which were well preserved in their order of deposition were probably either tsunami or storm deposits diatom analysis revealed four stages of paleo environmental change from tidal marsh to wetland the uppermost event layer covering the ground surface is probably the deposit from the 2011 tohoku oki tsunami ages for other event deposits were radiometrically dated using 14 c 137 cs and 210 pb with bayesian estimation the second event layers can be correlated with the 1960 chilean or 1968 aomori oki earthquake tsunamis the candidates for the third event layer are the 1947 catherine and 1948 ione typhoons as well as the candidates for the second event layer the fourth and fifth event layers are likely associated with the 1933 and 1896 sanriku oki earthquake tsunamis four lower event layers can be correlated with historical tsunamis and storms that occurred during the 15th to 18th centuries such as the 1611 sanriku oki earthquake tsunami

challenges of anticipating the 2011 tohoku earthquake and tsunami using coastal geology 1 can the magnitude of a giant earthquake be estimated from paleoseismological data alone attempts to estimate the size of the jogan earthquake of ad 869 whose tsunami affected much of the same coast as the 2011 tohoku tsunami offers an excellent opportunity to address this question which is fundamental to assessing earthquake and tsunami hazards at subduction zones between 2004 and 2010 examining stratigraphy at 399 locations beneath paddy fields along 180 km of coast mainly south of sendai we learned that a tsunami deposit associated with the ad 869 jogan earthquake had run inland at least 1 5 km across multiple coastal lowlands and that one of the lowlands had subsided during the jogan earthquake and an earlier earthquake as well radiocarbon ages just below above sand deposits left by the pre jogan tsunamis suggested recurrence intervals in the range of 500 to 800 years modeling inundation and subsidence we estimated size of the jogan earthquake as moment magnitude 8 4 or larger and a fault rupture area 200 km long we did not consider a longer rupture like the one in 2011 because coastal landform and absence of a volcanic ash layer make any jogan layer difficult to identify along the sanriku coast still sendai tsunami geology might have reduced casualties by improving evacuation maps and informing public awareness campaigns

slip distribution of the 1952 tokachi oki earthquake m 8 1 along the kuril trench deduced from tsunami waveform inversion 1 we inverted 13 tsunami waveforms recorded in japan to estimate the slip distribution of the 1952 tokachi oki earthquake m 8 1 which occurred southeast off hokkaido along the southern kuril subduction zone the previously estimated source area determined from tsunami travel times hatori 1973 did not coincide with the observed aftershock distribution our results show that a large amount of slip occurred in the aftershock area east of hatori s tsunami source area suggesting that a portion of the interplate thrust near the trench was ruptured by the main shock we also found more than 5 m of slip along the deeper part of the seismogenic interface just below the central part of hatori s tsunami source area this region which also has the largest stress drop during the main shock had few aftershocks large tsunami heights on the eastern hokkaido coast are better explained by the heterogeneous slip model than previous uniform slip fault models the total seismic moment is estimated to be 1 87 1021 n m giving a moment magnitude of mw 8 1 the revised tsunami source area is estimated to be 25 2 103 km2 3 times larger than the previous tsunami source area out of four large earthquakes with m 7 that subsequently occurred in and around the rupture area of the 1952 event three were at the edges of regions with relatively small amount of slip we also found that a subducted seamount near the edge of the rupture area possibly impeded slip along the plate interface

glacier and lake variations in the mapam yumco basin western himalaya of the tibetan plateau from 1974 to 2003 using remote sensing and gis technologies

estimation of glacier runoff and future trends in the yangtze river source region china glacier runoff from the yangtze river source region yrsr china is estimated for the period 1961 2000 using a degree day approach in the investigation area glacier runoff accounts for 11 0 of the total river runoff during the period 1961 2000 in the 1990s its contribution to river runoff rises to 17 0 due to the current rate of glacier decline the impact of glacier runoff on river runoff has recently increased in the source region based on two different climate change scenarios derived from echam5 mpi om future glacier runoff is assessed for the period 2001 50 in all climate change scenarios annual glacier runoff shows a significant increase due to intensified ice melting there is an increase in glacier runoff during spring and early summer yet a significant decrease in late summer this study highlights the current and future impact of glacier runoff on river runoff in the yrsr

spatial change detection of glacial lakes in the koshi river basin the central himalayas region warming and the resulting ongoing deglaciation have led to the formation of new glacial lakes and expansion of existing glacial lakes for giving an overview of the distribution and expansion of glacial lakes in the koshi river basin krb between the central china and nepal himalayas in the recent 10 years this paper aimed to analyze and assess recent spatial variability of glacial lake changes in the krb central himalayas using two inventory data of glacial lake in 2001 and 2010 in nepal and landsat tm etm data for the 1990s 2000 and 2009 on the chinese section of the krb the datasets show that there are 1 203 glacial lakes with a total area of 118 54 km2 in the krb in 2009 in which 599 lakes are mapped in the nepalese section of the krb with a total of 25 92 km2 and 604 lakes in the chinese section of the krb with a total area of 92 62 km2 from 2000 to 2009 the total number of glacial lakes decreased from 1 668 to 1 203 with a reduction of 45 86 in the krb whereas the total lake areas expanded by 10 60 i e 0 72 km2 a from 111 35 to 118 54 km2 between 2000 2001 and 2009 2010 especially 17 lakes are identified as potentially dangerous glacial lakes pdgls by international centre for integrated mountain development icimod on the nepalese section of the krb in 2009 in the same period 23 pdgls are also identified on the chinese section of the krb and the total area increased by 77 46 i e 0 37 km2 a from 1990 to 2010 and the expansion rate is significantly higher than 39 0 19 km2 a of non pdgls therefore there is a need for promoting the awareness of the hazard potential of glacier lakes to support proper planning of mitigation and adaptation strategies in this context

numerical simulations of gurenhekou glacier on the tibetan plateau we investigate the impact of climate change on gurenhekou glacier southern tibetan plateau which is representative of the tens of thousands of mountain glaciers in the region we apply a three dimensional thermomechanically coupled full stokes model to simulate the evolution of the glacier the steep and rugged bedrock geometry requires use of such a flow model we parameterize the temperature and surface mass balance smb uncertainties using nearby automatic weather and meteorological stations 6 year measured smb data and an energy balance model for a nearby glacier summer air temperature increased at 0 02 k a 1 over the past 50 years and the glacier has retreated at an average rate of 8 3 m a 1 prognostic simulations suggest an accelerated annual average retreat rate of similar to 9 1 m a 1 along the central flowline for the next 25 years under continued steady warming however regional climate models suggest a marked increase in warming rate over tibet during the 21st century and this rate causes about a 0 9 0 3 a 1 loss of glaciated area and 1 1 0 6 a 1 shrinkage of glacier volume these results the rather high warming rates predicted and the small sizes of most tibetan glaciers suggest that significant numbers of glaciers will be lost in the region during the 21st century

changes in the glacier extent and surface elevation along the ningchan and shuiguan river source eastern qilian mountains china we investigate the changes at nine glaciers in the ningchan and shuiguan river source eastern qilian mountains between 1972 and 2010 according to analysis of topographic maps and multispectral satellite data all nine glaciers in the study area have retreated by a maximum of 250 57 4 m and a minimum of 91 57 4 m the total glacier area decreased by 1 20 km 2 corresponding to 9 9 of the glacierized area in 1972 comparing the two dems generated from the topographic maps and real time kinematic gps data the mean glacier thinning rate was 0 64 m yr 1 between 1972 and 2010 the most significant thinning generally occurred on the termini the ice volume loss was about 106 8 46 7 x 10 3 km 3 equal to 90 8 39 7 x 10 3 km 3 w e which suggested a mean water discharge of 0 1 0 05 m 3 s during 1972 2010 based on analysis of meteorological data the summer temperature june august tends to increase over a similar time period the consistency of temperature increase and glacier shrinkage allows us to suggest that air temperature plays an important role in glacier changes in this region c 2014 university of washington published by elsevier inc all rights reserved

energy and mass balance of zhadang glacier surface central tibetan plateau climate variables that control the annual cycle of the surface energy and mass balance on zhadang glacier in the central tibetan plateau were examined over a 2 year period using a physically based energy balance model forced by routine meteorological data the modelled results agree with measured values of albedo incoming longwave radiation surface temperature and surface level of the glacier for the whole observation period the radiation component dominated 82 the total surface energy heat fluxes this was followed by turbulent sensible 10 and latent heat 6 fluxes subsurface heat flux represented a very minor proportion 2 of the total heat flux the sensitivity of specific mass balance was examined by perturbations of temperature 1 k relative humidity 20 and precipitation 20 the results indicate that the specific mass balance is more sensitive to changes in precipitation than to other variables the main seasonal variations in the energy balance were in the two radiation components net shortwave radiation and net longwave radiation and these controlled whether surface melting occurred a dramatic difference in summer mass balance between 2010 and 2011 indicates that the glacier surface mass balance was closely related to precipitation seasonality and form proportion of snowfall and rainfall

shorter intervals between great earthquakes near sendai scour ponds and a sand layer attributable to a d 1454 overwash a sparsely documented tsunami in 1454 may subdivide the recurrence interval between the 869 and 2011 tsunamis near sendai as judged from geomorphic stratigraphic and archival evidence pond filled breaches cut across beach ridges on century old topographic maps the basal pond deposit in one of these breaches postdates 1454 stratigraphy on sendai plain includes a sand sheet that contains marine and brackish diatoms radiocarbon ages suggest that the sheet dates to 1406 1615 2 and written records for this interval in tohoku mention a tsunami in 1454 the inferred inundation extended 1 0 2 5 km inland from an approximate medieval shoreline simulated tsunamis that best account for the sand sheet require a thrust earthquake of moment magnitude 8 4 or larger if the sand sheet represents the 1454 tsunami the two most recent intervals between great thrust earthquakes in sendai region spanned 585 and 557 years

nine unusually large tsunami deposits from the past 4000 years at kiritappu marsh along the southern kuril trench abstract large earthquakes along the kuril subduction zone in northern japan are known to have caused damaging tsunami although there is a little information on historical earthquakes and tsunami in this area because no documents exist before the 19th century that might refer to tsunami events to determine the likely timing and size of future events we need information on their recurrence intervals and to do this for the prehistoric past we have investigated sediments located in the kiritappu marsh in eastern hokaido that we interpret as laid down by tsunami using reliable multiple lines of evidence from sedimentological geomorphological micropaleontological and chronological results we identify 13 tsunami sands two of these lie within a peat bed above a historical tephra ta a ad 1739 the upper one probably corresponds to the ad 1843 tempo tokachi oki earthquake m 8 2 tsunami and the lower to either the ad 1952 tokachi oki earthquake m 8 2 tsunami or the ad 1960 chilean earthquake m 9 5 tsunami underlying are 11 prehistoric tsunami sand beds nine large sand beds and two smaller sand beds deposited during the past 4000 years because of the wide spatial distribution of the large sand beds and inundation distances inland of between 1200 to 3000 m we suggest that they record unusually large tsunamis along the kuril subduction zone according to our analyses these tsunami sands were derived from the coastal area and although they do not show clear graded bedding they commonly have gradational upper boundaries and erosional bases and include internal sedimentary structures such as plane beds dunes and current ripples reflecting bedload transportation based on our results we calculate the recurrence interval of unusually large earthquakes probably m 8 6 along the kuril subduction zone as about 365 553 years and estimate the youngest large event to have occurred in the 17th century

glacier area changes in the pumqu river basin tibetan plateau between the 1970s and 2001 glacier area changes in the pumqu river basin tibetan plateau between the 1970s and 2001 are analyzed based on the chinese glacier inventory and aster images a new glacier inventory is obtained by visually interpreting the remote sensing images and the digital elevation model by comparing the two inventories glacier area changes over the past 30 years are revealed the results show that the area loss is about 9 0 and the shrinkage trend continues according to the meteorological data

the new remote sensing derived swiss glacier inventory ii first results complete swiss glacier inventories are available for 1850 reconstructed and 1973 from aerial photography connected to the global land ice measurements from space project a new swiss glacier inventory for approximately the year 2000 sgi 2000 is compiled mainly based on satellite imagery the developed and applied remotesensing and geographical information system gis methods are described in part i of the contribution in part ii the inventory design first result analyses and comparisons with former glacial conditions are presented as basic entries sgi 2000 contains the individual glacier identification planimetric glacier boundaries as derived from image analysis digitized central flowlines and polygonal glacier basin maps all other parameters are automatically deduced from the above entries and a digital elevation model within a gis here we analyze a set of small bernese and valais glaciers of area 2 these glaciers lost about 21 of area from 1973 to 1998 in addition to about 80 during 1850 1973 both with respect to the 1973 area in order to track the latest trend in more detail anintermediate glacier condition has been compiled from satellite imagery of 1985 this analysis gave an increasing speed of area loss 19 for 1985 98

the january 2018 to september 2019 surge of shisper glacier pakistan detected from remote sensing observations abstract this study analysed the actively surging shisper glacier in the karakoram region of pakistan using earth observation data from landsat 8 oli and planet images changes in the surface glacier velocity supraglacial moraines and debris cover were assessed using landsat 8 data at monthly time steps from january 2018 to may 2019 high resolution data from planet labs was used to precisely detect the snout advance and ice dammed lake expansion downstream cross section profiles of the valley were generated using a moderate resolution digital elevation model to assess the inundation in the event of rapid ice dammed lake drainage correlation image analysis software working on the principle of normalized cross correlation was used to generate time series monthly surface velocity profiles for shisper glacier manual digitization at 1 30000 scale was used to delineate supraglacial moraines and supraglacial debris cover the glacier surface velocity profiles indicate that the ablation zone of the glacier continues to be in an active surge phase resulting in advance of the snout and expansion of the ice dammed lake surface glacier velocities are as high as 48 m d 1 between 18 december 2018 and 8 may 2019 the glacier snout advanced at 6 m d 1 with a total overall advance of 860 m the lake formed due to damming of an outflow stream from mochowar glacier expanded to its maximum area 29 69 ha in may 2019 before drainage started on 23 june 2019 our estimates indicate that the peak discharge in case of rapid drainage could vary between 5033 m3 s 1 and 6167 m3 s 1 and potentially affect infrastructure downstream

ambiguous correlation of precisely dated coral detritus with the tsunamis of 1861 and 1907 at simeulue island aceh province indonesia precise u th dates from coral detritus in two pre 2004 tsunami deposits on simeulue island in aceh province allow us to correlate the deposits with historically documented tsunamis in the recent few centuries but because of potential discordance between the death dates of the corals and deposition of the sand layers ambiguity in this correlation remains pits at coastal lowland sites exposed sand layers beneath the 2004 tsunami deposit at busung and naibos on southern simeulue island the layers share sedimentological characteristics with the deposit of the 2004 tsunami and are interpreted as pre 2004 tsunami deposits historical accounts document earthquakes and tsunamis in 1907 and 1861 and suggest that the 1907 tsunami was larger locally than any others historically nonetheless u th analyses of coral boulders in the younger of two pre 2004 deposits at busung and in the lone deposit at naibos yielded dates of death that overlap with 1861 but there were no tsunami layers that could be directly dated to 1907 the younger pre 2004 sand deposit can be attributed to both the 1861 and 1907 events if the dated corals were killed by uplift in 1861 and subsequently entrained and deposited by the 1907 tsunami a piece of coral in the older of the two pre 2004 sand layers at busung dated to around ad 1783 and was deposited by an unknown tsunami that occurred after ad 1783 or possibly by the 1861 tsunami the nearly equatorial latitude of the study sites minimizes potential for geological confusion between tsunami and storm our results show the difficulty in matching known events and geological records when using limiting maximum ages from allochthonous fossils even with high precision radiometric dates

glacier status during the period 1973 2014 in the hunza basin western karakoram abstract glacier changes in the karakoram have shown a complex pattern since the recent decades with the coexistence of advancing retreating and stable glaciers but the mechanisms driving these changes remain for the most part unclear we examined the changes in glacier length area and elevation in the hunza basin of the upper indus river region western karakoram using corona remote sensing data landsat mss tm oli imagery srtm digital elevation model dem and glas icesat altimeter data we delineated 108 glaciers within the study area the total area of these glaciers decreased 28 86 km2 or 1 36 from 2115 48 km2 in 1973 2086 62 km2 in 2014 the most significant reduction in ice coverage occurred between 1992 and 1998 when glaciers retreated on average at a rate of 2 97 km2 yr 0 85 of the total coverage measured in the 1970s in contrast many glaciers advanced from 2008 to 2014 and glacial coverage increased by 0 19 0 00 km2 in comparison to fast retreating glaciers in the hindukush and the trans himalayan regions the glaciers in the hunza basin are relatively stable the topographical characteristics and the size of the glaciers have direct impacts on glacial changes in the hunza basin specifically significant changes occurred mainly below 5500 m above sea level glaciers retreated more extensively on steep slopes than on gentle slopes and small glaciers retreated relatively faster than large glaciers the overall pattern of glacial retreat is related to the warming trend in summer temperature whereas the relative stability of glaciers in the hunza basin as well as their recent advance 2008 2014 is likely driven by increasing autumn and winter precipitation

glacier changes in the sikeshu river basin tienshan mountains abstract glaciers are widely recognized as sensitive indicators for regional climate change this study reports changes of glaciers in the sikeshu river basin tienshan mountains northwest china between 1964 and 2004 analysis of satellite images showed that the glaciated area decreased by about 15 4 0 38 y 1 from 114 6 to 96 9 km2 the average glacier front retreat amounts to 195 3 m 4 9 m y 1 during the last four decades data from the jilede hydro meteorological station in the sikeshu river basin showed increases in both the annual mean air temperature and annual precipitation during 1964 2004 this indicates that the glacier shrinkage in the sikeshu river basin over the last 40 years was largely due to regional climate warming that enhanced glacier ablation and overcompensated for the effects of increased precipitation on the glacier mass balance glaciers smaller than 0 5 km2 in area experienced the strongest retreat whereas glaciers larger than 2 km2 in area experienced gentle recession but may be the main contributors in the future to river runoff glacial shrinkage in the sikeshu river basin is likely to continue with the temperature increase expected in coming decades

glacial cover mapping 1987 1996 of the cordillera blanca peru using satellite imagery multitemporal glacier area mapping is a key element in accurately determining fresh water reserves as well as providing an indicator of climate change in peru the first glacier inventory was based on visual interpretation of aerial photos requiring several years of effort landsat thematic mapper satellite imagery on the other hand provides an increasingly employed alternative for the monitoring of changes in glacier area and in other glaciological parameters by means of normalized difference snow index ndsi computations on tm images an estimate of the glacierized area in cordillera blanca peru was carried out for 1987 643 63 km2 and 1996 600 61 km2 compared to an estimate of 721 km2 in 1970 it can be concluded that the glacier area has retreated in this massif by more than 15 in 25 years

influence of climate change on saline lakes of the tibet plateau 1973 2010 abstract levels and surface areas of saline lakes are indicators of climate change and climate variability the surface extents of 93 saline lakes with areas larger than 20 km2 excluding dry saline lakes on the tibet plateau were delineated from landsat images obtained in 1973 1977 1989 1992 1999 2001 and 2008 2010 based on remote sensing spatial analysis techniques and gis the dynamic changes of the saline lake surface areas from 1973 to 2010 were analyzed the total surface area of these saline lakes increased especially since around 2000 and the total surface area increased by 47 during 1973 1977 to 2008 2010 during 1973 1977 to 1989 1992 saline lakes with decreased areas were mainly distributed in the northern and middle parts of the tibet plateau whereas those in other places tended to expand since around 2000 nearly all the saline lakes expanded mean annual temperature mean annual maximum temperature mean annual minimum temperature annual precipitation and evaporation on the tibet plateau were analyzed over the past four decades the climate has become warmer and wetter rising temperature and dropping evaporation are two dominant factors responsible for saline lake expansion the salinity of many saline lakes decreased during this climate warming new analyses included factors responsible for the changes i e tectonics climate lake basin shape glaciers catchments open or closed systems and human activities

changes in glacier extent and surface elevations in the depuchangdake region of northwestern tibet china abstract remote sensing data including those from landsat thematic mapper enhanced thematic mapper plus tm etm the shuttle radar topography mission digital elevation model srtm4 1 dem and the geoscience laser altimeter system ice cloud and land elevation satellite glas icesat show that from 1991 to 2013 the glacier area in the depuchangdake region of northwestern tibet decreased from 409 to 393 km 2 an overall loss of 16 km 2 or 3 9 of the entire 1991 glacial area the mean glacier thinning rate was 0 40 0 16 m equivalent height of water per year w e yr equating to a glacier mass balance of 0 16 0 07 km 3 w e yr total mass loss from 2003 to 2009 was 1 13 0 46 km 3 glacier retreat likely reflects increases in annual total radiation annual positive degree days and maximum temperature with concurrent increases in precipitation insufficient to replenish glacial mass loss the rate of glacier retreat in depuchangdake is less than that for himalayan glaciers in indian monsoon dominated areas but greater than that for karakoram glaciers in mid latitude westerly dominated areas glacier type climate zone and climate change all impact on the differing degrees of long term regional glacial change rate however special glacier distribution forms can sometimes lead to exceptional circumstances

extracting a climate signal from 169 glacier records i constructed a temperature history for different parts of the world from 169 glacier length records using a first order theory of glacier dynamics i related changes in glacier length to changes in temperature the derived temperature histories are fully independent of proxy and instrumental data used in earlier reconstructions moderate global warming started in the middle of the 19th century the reconstructed warming in the first half of the 20th century is 0 5 kelvin this warming was notably coherent over the globe the warming signals from glaciers at low and high elevations appear to be very similar

glacier recession and glacial lake outburst flood studies in zanskar basin western himalaya abstract glacier recession and formation of glacial lakes along with outburst flood hazards are increasing in response to changing climate in the himalayan region this study describes evolution of dalung and padam glaciers and their associated lakes employing multi temporal datasets of landsat mss tm etm indian remote sensing liss iii google earthtm aster gdem and survey of india topographic maps the dalung glacier dg and lake dl are present in suru river catchment whereas the padam glacier pg and lake pl are present in tsarap river catchment of zanskar basin western himalaya from 1962 to 2015 the dg and pg have shrunk at different rates the dg has shrunk by 2 6 0 56 km2 19 2 4 1 at a rate of 0 05 0 01 km2 a 1 whereas the pg has shrunk by 3 4 0 65 km2 12 7 2 4 at a rate of 0 06 0 01 km2 a 1 the frontal recession was recorded as 1 240 0 02 km 15 7 2 0 at a rate of 20 0 4 m a 1 for dg and 2 690 0 5 m 21 3 2 1 at a rate of 50 7 0 1 m a 1 for pg consequently the proglacial glacial lakes have formed indicating an expansion of 20 3 4 dl and 58 4 5 pl during 1990 2015 using integrated criteria of standard indices for the identification of potentially dangerous glacial lakes pdgls the lakes were found to be vulnerable and have a potential to cause breaching in the coming years in order to provide inputs for the emergency action plan one dimensional mike 11 model was used to generate the peak flood hydrographs at the lake and other vulnerable sites downstream highest peak discharge of 3361 7 m3 s 1 dl and 4210 3 m3 s 1 pl were estimated at the lake sites which has reduced to 1520 9 m3 s 1 and 1722 4 m3 s 1 respectively at the outlet sites the reduced discharge at downstream sites still bears the potential to create dangerous flood hazards

variations of glacial lakes and glaciers in the boshula mountain range southeast tibet from the 1970s to 2009 catastrophic floods originating from glacial lake outbursts have recently become one of the primary natural hazards in the southeastern tibetan plateau here we report observations of glacial lake expansions and glacier recessions in the boshula mountain range southeast tibet derived from multitemporal remote sensing images and digital elevation models during the period from the 1970s to 2009 the area of glacial lakes has expanded from 9 24 0 1 km 2 in the 1970s to 10 96 0 1 km 2 in 2009 specifically the area of moraine dammed lakes has increased by 26 8 from the 1970s to 2009 the glacierized area in the boshula mountain range shrank by 12 7 21 2 km 2 increasing mean summer air temperature was the main cause for the glacier recession and lake expansion from the 1970s to 2001 while the combination of increased summer temperature and decreased summer precipitation led to accelerated glacier recession after 2001 climate warming and ongoing deglaciation play important roles in the expansion of moraine dammed lakes calling for intensified monitoring to properly address the hazard potential in the study area

coastal sedimentation associated with the december 12th 1992 tsunami in flores indonesia this paper presents the result of a detailed granulometric investigation of sediments deposited by a modern tsunami the 1992 tsunami in flores indonesia eyewitness accounts indicate that sediments were deposited upon coastal lowlands over wide areas as a result of the tsunami inundation distinctive vertical and lateral variations in particle size composition are characteristic features of the tsunami deposits and these are intimately related to sedimentary processes associated with flood inundation the geomorphological and sedimentary evidence is used here to establish a preliminary model of tsunami sedimentation this information is believed to be of great value in understanding sedimentary processes associated with tsunami flooding and in the interpretation of palaeo tsunami deposits

twentieth century warming preserved in a geladaindong mountain ice core central tibetan plateau high resolution 18 o records from a geladaindong mountain ice core spanning the period 1477 1982 were used to investigate past temperature variations in the yangtze river source region of the central tibetan plateau tp annual ice core 18 o records were positively correlated with temperature data from nearby meteorological stations suggesting that the 18 o record represented the air temperature in the region a generally increasing temperature trend over the past 500 years was identified with amplified warming during the 20th century a colder stage spanning before the 1850s was found to represent the little ice age with colder periods occurring during the 1470s 1500s 1580s 1660s 1700s 20s and 1770s 1840s compared with other temperature records from the tp and the northern hemisphere the geladaindong ice core record suggested that the regional climate of the central tp experienced a stronger warming trend during the 20th century than other regions in addition a positive relationship between the geladaindong 18 o values and the north atlantic oscillation index combined with a wavelet analysis of 18 o records indicated that there was a potential atmospheric teleconnection between the north atlantic and the central tp

glacier variations in response to climate change from 1972 to 2007 in the western lenglongling mountains northeastern tibetan plateau global warming is causing widespread glacier retreat with small glaciers disappearing we investigate changes in glaciers over the western lenglongling mountains located in the northeastern margin of the tibetan plateau glacier extent over the western lenglongling mountains is estimated by comparing digitized glacier outlines obtained from aerial photographs and satellite imagery these results suggest that all 179 glaciers in the western lenglongling mountains shrunk between 1972 and 2007 the total area loss was similar to 24 4 km 2 accounting for similar to 28 3 0 81 a 1 of the glacierized area in 1972 the average area retreat rates differ over different time intervals they are approximately 0 68 0 90 0 77 and 0 56 km 2 a 1 over the periods 1972 95 1995 99 1999 2002 and 2002 07 respectively based on analysis of meteorological data glacier shrinkage in the study area can probably be attributed to the increase in air temperature furthermore the smaller glaciers display a higher shrinkage rate than larger glaciers and glaciers on southwest facing slopes appear to retreat faster than those on northeast facing slopes

glacial evolution in the ayilariju region western himalaya china 1980 2011 changes in glacial geometries extent and surface elevations in the ayilariju region of western himalaya china were investigated using topographical maps and data from the landsat thematic mapper enhanced thematic mapper plus the satellite pour l observation de la terre spot4 the shuttle radar topography mission 4 1 digital elevation model and geographical information system techniques the results showed that the total glaciated area decreased from 190 37 to 162 52 km2 14 6 of the 1980 glaciated area from 1980 to 2011 furthermore total glacial mass loss of studied region was estimated to be 2 570 0 327 km3 between 1980 and 2000 further investigation on meteorological data indicated that increases of temperature and total radiation were the primary causes of accelerated glacial melting reduced wind speed and slight decreases in precipitation triggered by weakening of the south asian summer monsoon due to warming may also have contributed to glacial shrinkage the rate of glacial retreat in the studied region is lower than that in the southern himalayan region but larger than that in the karakoram primarily because ayilariju glaciers were located on the margin of the indian monsoon dominated region

combining satellite multispectral image data and a digital elevation model for mapping debris covered glaciers automated glacier mapping from satellite multispectral image data is hampered by debris cover on glacier surfaces supraglacial debris exhibits the same spectral properties as lateral and terminal moraines fluvioglacial deposits and bedrock outside the glacier margin and is thus not detectable by means of multispectral classification alone based on the observation of low slope angles for debris covered glacier tongues we developed a multisource method for mapping supraglacial debris the method combines the advantages of automated multispectral classification for clean glacier ice and vegetation with slope information derived from a digital elevation model dem neighbourhood analysis and change detection is applied for further improvement of the resulting glacier debris map a significant percentage of the processing can be done automatically in order to test the sensitivity of our method against different dem qualities it was also applied to a dem obtained from aster stereo data additionally we compared our multisource approach to an artificial neural network ann classification of debris using only multispectral data while the combination with an aster derived dem revealed promising results the ann classification without dem data does not

the new remote sensing derived swiss glacier inventory i methods a new swiss glacier inventory is to be compiled from satellite data for the year 2000 the study presented here describes two major tasks 1 an accuracy assessment of different methods for glacier classification with landsat thematic mapper tm data and a digital elevation model dem 2 the geographical information system gis based methods for automatic extraction of individual glaciers from classified satellite data and the computation of three dimensional glacier parameters such as minimum maximum and median elevation or slope and orientation by fusion with a dem first results obtained by these methods are presented in part ii of this paper kaab and others 2002 thresholding of a ratio image from tm4 and tm5 reveals the best suited glacier map the computation of glacier parameters in a gis environment is efficient and suitable for worldwide application the methods developed contribute to the u s geological survey led global land ice measurements from space glims project which is currently compiling a global inventory of land ice masses within the framework of global glacier monitoring haeberli and others 2000

glacier change and glacier runoff variation in the tuotuo river basin the source region of yangtze river in western china glaciers in the tuotuo river basin western china have been monitored in recent decades by applying topographical maps and high resolution satellite images results indicate that most of glaciers in the tuotuo river basin have retreated in the period from 1968 1971 to 2001 2002 and their shrinkage area is 3 2 of the total area in the late 1960s to assess the influence of glacier runoff on river runoff a modified degree day model including potential clear sky direct solar radiation has been applied to the glaciated regions of the river basin over the period 1961 2004 it was found that glacier runoff has increased in the last 44 years especially in the 1990s when a two thirds increase in river runoff was derived from the increase in glacier runoff caused by loss of ice mass in the entire tuotuo river basin

assessment of multispectral glacier mapping methods and derivation of glacier area changes 1978 2002 in the central southern alps new zealand from aster satellite data field survey and existing inventory data we have measured the glacier area changes in the central southern alps new zealand between 1978 and 2002 and have compiled the 2002 glacier outlines using an image scene from the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer aster three automated classification methods were tested 1 band ratio 2 normalized difference snow index and 3 supervised classification the results were compared with the glacier outlines photo interpreted from the aster data and were further validated using gps aided field mapping of selected test glaciers the aster 3 4 band ratio provided the best results however all the classification methods failed to extract extensive debris covered parts of the glaciers therefore the photo interpreted 2002 outlines were used when comparing with the existing 1978 glacier inventory derived from aerial photographs our results show a 17 reduction of glacier area mainly driven by the retreat of the large valley glaciers despite the large climatic gradient from west to east glaciers on both sides of the main divide lost similar percentages of area except franz josef and fox glaciers which advanced smaller glaciers were found to have changed very little in the study period

calcareous nannofossil surface sediment assemblages from the sicily channel central mediterranean sea palaeoceanographic implications abstract quantitative analysis of 67 calcareous nannofossil assemblages from surface sediments recovered in a wide area across the sicily channel has been carried out in order to improve the interpretation of palaeontological data based on this planktonic group in a key area for mediterranean palaeoceanographic studies the investigation focused on three case studies that demonstrate the high potentiality of such a combined approach taking into account the recent distribution of taxa or groups of taxa on the sea floor and the palaeontological record the distribution of reworked specimens over the northern sicily channel sea floor validates the role of southern sicily as a source region for reworked nannofossils and the role of rivers as their carrier eustatic sea level fluctuations can be considered to be the main factor that influenced the abundance variations in sedimentary sequences of this area the distribution of florisphaera profunda can be explained in terms of topography positive correlation and mesoscale oceanographic circulation in particular its significant anti correlation to the amount of chlorophyll a deduced by satellite imagery validates the use of this species as a proxy for palaeoproductivity reconstructions finally high abundance values of g oceanica are confined to the westernmost part of the sicily channel coinciding with a water mass salinity minimum in particular abundances of up to about 10 were observed in the westernmost part of the african margin suggesting the importance of the atlantic tunisian current whose activity is more pronounced in winter the comparison of data of this species between 135 and 110 kyr bp inside and outside the channel led us to deduce that the physical transport in almost unmodified waters of atlantic origin might be the most important factor for its significant occurrence

formation and deformation of basal till during a glacier surge elisebreen svalbard elisebreen a retreating valley glacier in nw svalbard experienced a surge in the past possibly during the little ice age when ice was thicker and the bed warmer the surge produced an assemblage of subglacial landforms and sediments now appearing in front of the downwasting ice margin we have analysed an array of sedimentary properties of basal till from glacial flutings ploughing marks an interflute ground moraine and meandering ridges in order to infer processes of till formation and deformation during the unrecorded surge till in flutings and ploughing marks reveals higher mechanical abrasion than in other landforms but grain size distribution and mineralogy are largely the same everywhere micromorphological characteristics are also very similar and comprise ductile and brittle deformation structures indicating fluctuating porewater pressures frequent micrograin fracturing suggests stress concentration along grain bridges during the surge till was formed by a combination of lodgement and deformation caused mainly by clast ploughing meandering ridges containing till with water escape structures indicate that surge termination was facilitated by rapid water evacuation from the ice bed interface through r type channels micromorphological similarity of till found in flutings ploughing marks and interflute areas suggests that the resolution of the micromorphological signature is insufficient to constrain the different processes that led to the formation of those landforms

stratigraphy distribution and petrographic properties of holocene tephras in hokkaido northern japan abstract thirty one widespread visible holocene tephras in hokkaido northern japan were identified and their stratigraphic relationships were examined among these three tephras from komagatake volcano ko c1 ko c2 and ko g three from tarumae volcano ta a ta b and ta c us 1663 from usu volcano ma b from mashu volcano and b tm from baegdusan volcano on the boundary between north korea and china cover a large area of southern and eastern hokkaido and are thus useful tephras for correlating sedimentary records and holocene phenomena all tephras were identified on the basis of their mineral composition and the refractive indices and major elements of their glass shards the volcanic glass samples were dehydrated before refractive index measurement by heating at 400 c for 12 h most holocene tephras in hokkaido can be easily identified on the basis of the refractive indices and major element compositions of volcanic glass

nasa eos terra aster volcanic topographic mapping and capability up to date accurate topographic data are a crucial resource for volcanic research and risk mitigation efforts in particular for modeling volcanic flow processes at a detailed spatial resolution in this paper we examine the utility of the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer aster instrument currently operating on the nasa terra satellite which provides near infrared vnir stereo imaging from which topography can be derived we wrote software to generate digital elevation models dems from the aster level 1a product which employs an automated stereo matching technique to calculate the parallax offsets between the images acquired by the nadir and aft looking sensors comparison of aster dems with dems derived from other sources digitized 1 50 k topographic maps and aerial interferometric radar at ruapehu volcano reveal an rms error of about 10 m for the aster dem in the absence of significant atmospheric water vapor a qualitative assessment of surface features showed that the aster dem is superior to the interpolated 1 50 k map product but falls short of the detail provided by aerial interferometric radar especially in terms of stream channel preservation a second aster dem was generated for taranaki volcano where previously only 1 50 k topographic map data were available although the 2000 space shuttle radar topography mission srtm will largely remedy the previous global paucity of adequate topographic data at volcanoes such as taranaki we anticipate the problem that at active volcanoes the topography may change significantly following activity rendering the srtm data inaccurate with the high temporal coverage of the dataset aster not only provides a means to update significant 10 m topographic measurements at active volcanoes via a time series of dems but also provides a simultaneous means to map surface cover and localized land use via the near infrared sensors thus we demonstrate the potential for up to date volcanic economic risk assessment using geographic information systems gis analysis

comparison of satellite derived with ground based measurements of the fluctuations of the margins of vatnajokull iceland 1973 92 vatnajokull iceland is the earth s most studied ice cap and represents a classical glaciological field site on the basis of s palsson s seminal glaciological field research in the late 18th century since the 19th century vatnajokull has been the focus of an array of glaciological studies by scientists from many nations including many remote sensing investigations since 1951 landsat derived positions of the termini of 11 outlet glaciers of vatnajokull were compared with frontal positions of six of these 11 outlet glaciers determined by field observations during the period 1973 92 the largest changes during the 19 year period 1973 92 occurred in the large lobate surge type outlet glaciers along the southwestern western and northern margins of vatnajokull tungnaarjokull receded 1413 112 m 1380 1 m from ground observations and bruarjokull receded 1975 191 m 2096 5 m from extrapolated ground observations between 1973 and 1992 satellite images can be used to delineate glacier margin changes on a time lapse basis if the glacier margin can be spectrally discriminated from terminal moraines and sandur deposits and if the advance recession is larger than maximum image pixel size local knowledge of glaciers is critically important however in the accurate delineation of glacier margins on landsat images

subduction zone paleoseismology along the pacific coast of northeast japan progress and remaining problems abstract this paper reviews recent progress in tsunami geology and the history of coastal uplift subsidence along the pacific coasts of hokkaido and tohoku facing the kuril and japan trenches respectively in the last 20 years research by tsunami geologists in northeast japan has focused on extending the record of tsunamis beyond the range of historical documents in the region which span too little time to reveal much of the earthquake history over the last millennia along the coast of hokkaido recurrent sandy deposits are evidence of historical and prehistoric large tsunamis at kiritappu marsh for example at least 15 identified tsunami deposits occurred between 200 and 6 000 years ago the spatial distribution of the most recent prehistoric tsunami deposit that of the so called 17th century earthquake and tsunami exceeds historical and recent tsunami inundations in eastern hokkaido numerical simulations of this event require a multi segment fault model with variable slip mw 8 8 encompassing both the tokachi oki and nemuro oki regions to reproduce the observed deposit distribution in eastern hokkaido the recurrence interval of such multi segment earthquakes along the southern kuril trench is estimated to be 100 800 years based on tephrochronological and radiocarbon evidence tsunami deposits are also associated with historical earthquakes in 1843 and 1894 in eastern hokkaido and with the 1640 komagatake eruption in western hokkaido the 17th century earthquake probably triggered postseismic coastal deformation diatom based transfer functions suggest rapid subsidence before the event and gradual uplift afterward and historical volcanic ash layers indicate that gradual postseismic uplift occurred over decades a simple dislocation model can explain such gradual uplift as an aseismic fault extension after the 17th century event in the tohoku region a tsunami deposit associated with the 869 jogan earthquake has been identified and the inundation area of this event has been constrained based on the lateral extent of the tsunami deposit and its stratigraphic position beneath the historical to a tephra 915 ce land level changes at odaka fukushima prefecture associated with the jogan event have been estimated based on changes of fossil diatom assemblages below and above the tsunami deposit numerical simulations based on geological evidence and observations of the 2011 tohoku tsunami deposit suggest that the jogan event was a plate boundary rupture at least 200 km long along the japan trench mw 8 3 8 6 the 1454 kyotoku tsunami is also considered to have been generated by a rupture area including the miyagi oki region part of the jogan rupture it remains unclear whether the 869 1454 and 2011 tsunamis were similar in size and source if they were the recurrence intervals of such events near sendai are less than 600 years and more regular than those for multi segment earthquakes along the kuril trench

glacier changes in the karlik shan eastern tien shan during 1971 72 2001 02 glacier changes in the karlik shan eastern tien shan from 1971 72 to 2001 02 were monitored in this study topographic maps of 1 50000 scale based on aerial photographs from 1971 72 and satellite images landsat tm landsat etm and aster from 1992 2001 and 2002 were used to map glacier extent through a process of manual digitizing the total glacier area decreased by 5 3 from 1971 72 to 2001 02 the rate of glacier area shrinkage was 0 13 a 1 between 1972 and 1992 but it was 0 27 a 1 from 1992 to 2001 02 suggesting accelerated glacier retreat in recent decades glacier changes in the region are a response to summer temperature increase annual precipitation also showed an upward trend but this could not compensate for the mass loss due to ablation

consideration of the errors inherent in mapping historical glacier positions in austria from the ground and space 1893 2001 the historical record of in situ measurements of the terminus positions of the pasterze and kleines fleiskees glaciers in the eastern alps of austria is used to assess uncertainties in the measurement of decadal scale changes using satellite data topographic maps beginning in 1893 and satellite data from 1976 to 2001 were studied in concert with ground measurements to measure glacier changes ground measurements show that the tongue of the pasterze glacier receded f1150 m from 1893 to 2001 while satellite derived measurements using august 2001 landsat enhanced thematic mapper plus etm data registered to an 1893 topographic map show a recession of 1300 1800 m with an unknown error the measurement accuracy depends on the registration technique and the pixel resolution of the sensor when two satellite images are used when using topographic maps an additional source of error is the accuracy of the glacier position shown on the map between 1976 and 2001 landsat derived measurements show a recession of the terminus of the pasterze glacier of 479f136 m at an average rate of 19 1 m a 1 while measurements from the ground showed a recession of 428 m at an average rate of 17 1 ma 1 four meter resolution ikonos satellite images from 2000 and 2001 reveal a shrinkage of 22 096f46 m 2 in the pasterze tongue the nearby kleines fleiskees glacier lost 30 of its area between 1984 and 2001 and the area of exposed ice increased by 0 44f0 0023 km 2 according to landsat satellite measurements as more recent satellite images are utilized especially data that are geocoded the uncertainty associated with measuring glacier changes has decreased it is not possible to assess the uncertainty when an old topographic map and a satellite image are coregistered

glacier and lake variations in the yamzhog yumco basin southern tibetan plateau from 1980 to 2000 using remote sensing and gis technologies glacier and lake variations in the yamzhog yumco basin in southern tibet were studied by integrating series of spatial data from topographic maps and landsat images at three different times 1980 1988 90 and 2000 the results indicate that the total glacier area has decreased from 218 km 2 in 1980 to 215 km 2 in 2000 a total reduction of 3 km 2 i e a 1 5 decrease glacier recession rates were clearly larger in the 1990s than the 1980s due to the warmer climate the total lake area decreased by about 67 km 2 during 1980 90 and increased by 32 km 2 during 1990 2000 it is suggested that change of lake area in the basin was rapid and most likely caused primarily by the change in precipitation and evaporation in the basin and secondarily by the increased water supply from melting glaciers

displacement above the hypocenter of the 2011 tohoku oki earthquake the moment magnitude m w 9 0 2011 tohoku oki mega thrust earthquake occurred off the coast of northeastern japan combining global positioning system gps and acoustic data we detected very large sea floor movements associated with this event directly above the focal region an area with more than 20 meters of horizontal displacement that is four times larger than those detected on land stretches several tens of kilometers long along the trench the largest amount reaches about 24 meters toward east southeast just above the hypocenter furthermore nearly 3 meters of vertical uplift occurred contrary to observed terrestrial subsidence

chronology and sedimentation process of varved lacustrine sediment in lake fukami central japan abstract continuous varve sequences were taken from lake fukami a monomictic lake southern part of nagano prefecture central japan in 2000 total 196 varve units were recognized in the upper 2 m horizon of the sediment core sedimentation rates in the core have some high peaks indicating increments of clastic particles supplied to the lake owing to natural disasters including floods and earthquakes and the artificial construction around lake fukami the results of the correlation between the meteorological records in iida meteorological station and the total carbon flux change based on the varve chronology indicates that the total carbon flux shows an inverse relationship to february mean temperature and precipitation february mean temperature controlled the vertical mixing of lake water column that affects the productivity of phytoplankton in the epilimnion or decomposition of organic matter in the hypolimnion february precipitation probably has affected the activity of denitrifying bacteria in the stagnation period pyrite and siderite minerals are recognized in the core by observation of thin sections and x ray powder diffraction analysis the pyrite was deposited in summer and the siderite was deposited in summer and winter these iron minerals indicate the decomposition processes of organic matters in the water column in each season

monitoring high altitude river ice distribution at the basin scale in the northeastern tibetan plateau from a landsat time series spanning 1999 2018 abstract river ice monitoring is important for hydrological research and water resource management of the tibetan plateau but limited by the serious shortage of field observations and remote sensing can be used as an effective supplementary means for monitoring river ice however remote sensing high altitude river ice is scarce and a basin scale understanding of river ice is lacking on the tibetan plateau to ascertain the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of high altitude river ice at the basin scale we selected the babao river basin as the study area which is a typical river basin located in the northeastern tibetan plateau utilizing 447 available landsat images during the river ice period from 1999 to 2018 and the classical normalized difference snow index ndsi algorithm we monitored the river ice in a long time series at the babao river basin the average khat of accuracy validation reached 0 973 the average area of river ice in the river ice period of this basin showed a weak decreasing trend and was negatively correlated with air temperature we also found that gentle slopes and high elevations are beneficial for the development of river ice the melting of river ice supplements river discharge in spring this study is the first to reveal the distribution characteristics and changing trend of river ice at the basin scale on the tibetan plateau and the results provide a reference for river ice research in this region

glacier changes on the tibetan plateau derived from landsat imagery mid 1970s 2000 13 glacier area changes on the tibetan plateau were studied in different drainage basins based on landsat satellite images from three epochs 263 in the mid 1970s 150 in 1999 2002 and 148 in 2013 14 three mosaics m1976 m2001 and m2013 with minimal cloud and snow cover were constructed and the uncertainty due to each epoch having a finite span was accounted for glacier outlines tpg1976 tpg2001 and tpg2013 were digitized manually with guidance from the srtm dem v4 1 and google earth imagery to achieve complete multi temporal coverage in a reasonable time only debris free ice was delineated area mapping uncertainty was evaluated at three study sites mount qomolangma everest mount naimona nyi mount geladandong where the largest differences between present and earlier measurements were within similar to 4 area differences with previous inventories ranged from 19 6 tpg1976 minus the first chinese glacier inventory to 3 6 and 1 1 tpg2013 and tpg2001 respectively minus the second chinese glacier inventory while the difference tpg2001 minus the gamdam glacier inventory was 10 4 glacier area on the plateau decreased from 44 366 2827 km 2 1 7 of the study area in the 1970s to 42 210 1621 km2 in 2001 and 41 137 1616 km2 in 2013 shrinkage was faster in external drainage basins of the southeast than in the interior basins of the northwest from a maximum of 0 43 a 1 1 60 a 1 during 19942013 in the mekong catchment down to a minimum of 0 12 a 1 in the tarim interior drainage

changes in glacier extent in the eastern pamir central asia determined from historical data and aster imagery abstract historical surveys and recent satellite imagery are used to map and assess glacier recession in the eastern pamir over the last three decades for this study we used topographic maps of 1 100 000 scales published in 1943 and 1970 air photos from 1978 and 1990 space images from russian satellites in 1972 1978 1980 and 1990 and aster data for 2001 climatic records from the fedtchenko glacier station 4156 m a s l 38 83 n 72 22 e and murgab meteorological station 3576 m a s l 38 17 n 73 97 e are used for analysis of the climate conditions in the region changes in the area of 5 glaciers and terminus positions of 44 glaciers in the eastern pamir reveal an accelerating trend since the end of the 1970s through 2001 as a continuation of glacier wastage and retreat since at least the end of the little ice age the glacier area decreased 7 8 during 1978 1990 and 11 6 in 1990 2001 this corresponds with documented changes in other mountain and subpolar regions in the northern hemisphere and specifically in central asia glacier changes in the eastern pamir are a response to increasing summer temperatures we find decreases in glacier area and retreat of glacier fronts increased debris covered area and the appearance of new lakes

revel a model for recent plate velocities from space geodesy 1 we present a new global model for recent plate velocities revel describing the relative velocities of 19 plates and continental blocks the model is derived from publicly available space geodetic primarily gps data for the period 1993 2000 we include an independent and rigorous estimate for gps velocity uncertainties to assess plate rigidity and propagate these uncertainties to the velocity estimates the velocity fields for north america eurasia and antarctica clearly show the effects of glacial isostatic adjustment and australia appears to depart from rigid plate behavior in a manner consistent with the mapped intraplate stress field two thirds of tested plate pairs agree with the nuvel 1a geologic 3 myr average velocities within uncertainties three plate pairs caribbean north america caribbean south america and north america pacific exhibit significant differences between the geodetic and geologic model that may reflect systematic errors in nuvel 1a due to the use of seafloor magnetic rate data that do not reflect the full plate rate because of tectonic complexities most other differences probably reflect real velocity changes over the last few million years several plate pairs arabia eurasia arabia nubia eurasia india move more slowly than the 3 myr nuvel 1a average perhaps reflecting long term deceleration associated with continental collision several other plate pairs including nazca pacific nazca south america and nubia south america are experiencing slowing that began 25 ma the beginning of the current phase of andean crustal shortening

space based mapping of glacier changes using aster and gis tools we describe an investigation that combines space based observations of glacier parameters with historical glaciological data derived by traditional means to predict changes in ice extent and volume for the ak shirak range in the interior tien shan of central asia a variety of geographic information systems and photogrammetric tools are used to extract glacier outlines derive of a digital elevation model and compute area versus elevation distribution functions from data acquired by the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer these products are then used in a glaciological methodology that can predict the response of glacier systems to changes in local climate

glacier area shrinkage in eastern nepal himalaya since 1992 using high resolution inventories from aerial photographs and alos satellite images to better understand the recent wide scale changes in glacier coverage we created and compared two glacier inventories covering eastern nepal based on aerial photographs 1992 and high resolution advanced land observing satellite alos imagery 2006 10 the alos derived inventory contained 1034 debris free and 256 debris covered glaciers with total and average areas of 440 2 33 3 and 0 42 km 2 and 1074 4 206 4 and 4 19 km 2 respectively we found that the debris free glaciers have lost 11 2 0 7 0 1 a 1 of their area since 1992 whereas the number of glaciers increased by 5 because of fragmentation the area change was significantly correlated by simple linear regression with minimum elevation r 0 30 maximum elevation r 0 18 altitudinal range r 0 50 glacier area r 0 62 and mean slope r 0 16 confirming that larger glaciers tended to lose a larger area but a smaller percentage than smaller glaciers the intra regional analysis of the glacier changes clearly showed higher shrinkage rates in the western massifs compared with the eastern massifs in addition 61 small glaciers covering an area of 2 4 km 2 have completely disappeared since 1992

elevation changes measured during 1966 2010 on the monsoonal temperate glaciers ablation region gongga mountains china abstract temperate glaciers are more sensitive to climate change than are polar or continental glaciers and can drive remarkable runoff variation in local water catchments changes in the glacier area and surface elevation of the three monsoonal temperate glaciers in the gongga mountains china were analyzed using series of remote sensing images and digital elevation model dem data all possible sources of uncertainty were considered in detail the results showed that the total glacier area decreased by 4 3 km 2 6 7 between 1966 and 2010 a comparison of glacier surface elevations using dems derived from dual frequency differential gps dgps surveys in 2010 and from 1966 to 1989 from topographic maps the three glaciers underwent significant mass loss from 1966 to 2010 and the mean surface elevation changes were 0 90 0 45 m y 1 06 0 45 m y and 1 12 0 45 m y for hailuogou hlg dagongba dgb and yanzigou yzg glaciers respectively from 1966 to 2010 analysis of the meteorological data showed that the mean annual air temperature increase was the main reason for the thinning and volume loss thinning of the glacier tongue and volume loss was more intense in the period 1989 2010 than in 1966 89 debris thickness and other factors are also believed to play important roles in differential thinning among different areas and periods

changes in the glacier extent and surface elevation in xiongcaigangri region southern karakoram mountains china the recent evolution of the karakoram glaciers widely acknowledged as peculiar remains poorly understood the xiongcaigangri region is in the south of karakoram and its glacial melt water has a significant impact on the local water supply and ecosystem in this work glacial changes in the xiongcaigangri region were detected based on topographic maps and landsat mss tm etm oli srtm4 1 dem and glas icesat remote sensing data and gis techniques the results show that from 1968 to 2013 the total glacier area decreased from 181 10 km 2 to 178 47 km 2 an overall loss of 2 63 km 2 or 1 45 of the entire 1968 glacial area the inverse relationship between the retreating area and the change rate indicates that small glaciers may be retreating faster the main glacial melting occurred below 6500 m a s l and the reduction of 2 62 km 2 accounts for 99 62 of the total glacial retreat in the area studied the very slight reduction of 0 01 km 2 over 6500 m a s l accounts for only for 0 38 of the total glacial retreat in the area studied the results also show that the glacier areas are decreasing on all slopes and larger area losses have been observed on smaller slopes whereas smaller area losses have been observed on the larger slopes the different aspects of the study all showed glacier retreat taking place between the period from 1968 to 2013 the largest area decrease is in west and the area lost in the other aspect was comparatively small total glacier mass loss in the xiongcaigangri region is estimated to be 10 97 22 39 10 8 m 3 w e between 1968 and 2000 the average elevation loss estimated from the icesat and 2000 srtm difference was from 4 69 3 40 m per year and the average elevation loss between srtm and 1968dem was from 0 92 to 0 66 m per year increasing temperatures along with decreasing precipitation was determined to be the primary factor driving the glacier retreat in the xiongcaigangri region c 2014 elsevier ltd and inqua all rights reserved

deposition models for chronological records abstract long term sedimentary sequences provide a wealth of useful information for research into the palaeo environment especially in relation to past climate change shorter records provide similar information in many archaeological contexts however if such records are to be used to provide precise timing of events and more critically the relative timing between different records methods are needed to provide accurate and precise age depth models for these sequences given the imprecision of individual calibrated radiocarbon determinations it is necessary to use the information we have about the deposition process to refine our chronologies and also to provide interpolation between dated levels in any sequence even with layer counted chronologies the uncertainties are sometimes hard to quantify this paper outlines a range of bayesian models for deposition which have been implemented in the computer programme oxcal these models can be used to combine information from the sediments themselves with radiocarbon or other direct dating information such models have the potential to integrate information between different records and provide a coherent chronology on which to base environmental or archaeological research