Two case studies (Kumtor in the Kyrgyz Republic and Pascua-Lama in Chile–Argentina) are analysed, illustrating how gold mining interferes with glaciers and how this may be affected by changing perceptions on global warming. Although global warming presents new opportunities for the mining industry, increasing the physical accessibility of resources previously covered with glaciers, it may also ...

Himalayas has one of the largest resources of snow and ice, which act as a freshwater reservoir for all the rivers originating from it. Monitoring of these resources is important for the assessment of availability of water in the Himalayan Rivers. The mapping of Glaciers is very difficult task because of the inaccessibility and remoteness of the terrain. Remote sensing techniques are often the ...

Himalayan glaciers are a focus of public and scientific debate. Prevailing uncertainties are of major concern because some projections of their future have serious implications for water resources. Most Himalayan glaciers are losing mass at rates similar to glaciers elsewhere, except for emerging indications of stability or mass gain in the Karakoram. A poor understanding of the processes affec...

Mapping changes in glacier extent from repeat optical satellite data has revealed widespread glacier decline in nearly all regions of the world over the past few decades. While numerous studies have documented the changes of the outlet glaciers of the Northern and Southern Patagonia Icefields (NPI/SPI), information about glacier changes in the Patagonian Andes (to the north of the NPI) is much ...

it is a very short time that the quaternaries period in geology and physical geography's knowledge has occupied a very important place. during this period, the earth has suffered consecutive freezing that has been accompanied by tides and alternate erosion and sedimentation. sedimentary successions have recorded valuable evidence of changes with very accurate details. the study of these sedimen...

[1] Recent and long term variations in ice extent on Kilimanjaro are investigated in the context of 20th century climate change in East Africa. Quickbird satellite data show that the areal extent of glaciers on Kilimanjaro is 2.51 km in February 2003. To assess glacier retreat on Kilimanjaro two glacier systems are identified: (1) plateau ( 5700 m) and (2) slope (<5700 m). Vertical wall retreat...

Coverage of ice velocities in the central part of the Southern Alps, New Zealand, is obtained from feature tracking using repeat optical imagery in 2002 and 2006. Precise orthorectification, co-registration and correlation is carried out using the freely available software COSI-Corr. This analysis, combined with short times between image acquisitions, has enabled velocities to be captured even ...

Rapid glacier advance is known to occur by a range of mechanisms. However, although large-scale debris loading has been proposed as a process for causing rapid terminus advance, it has rarely been observed. We use satellite remote sensing data to observe accelerated glacier terminus advance in response to massive supraglacial loading on two glaciers in Kyrgyzstan. Over a 15 year period, mining ...

Terminus fluctuations of five glaciers and the correspondence of these fluctuations to temperature and precipitation patterns were assessed at Oregon’s Mount Hood over the period 1901–2001. Historical photographs, descriptions, and climate data, combined with contemporary GPS measurements and GIS analysis, revealed that each glacier experienced overall retreat, ranging from 62 m at the Newton C...

The aim of this paper is to provide the community with a comprehensive overview of the studies of glaciers in the tropical Andes conducted in recent decades leading to the current status of the glaciers in the context of climate change. In terms of changes in surface area and length, we show that the glacier retreat in the tropical Andes over the last three decades is unprecedented since the ma...