New study reveals how icy surface ponds on Himalayan glaciers influence water flow



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Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, a team of glaciologists led by Aberystwyth University in Wales have shown that the ponds, which form on debris-covered glaciers in the Himalaya, control the rate at which water from melting ice flows downstream.

With many covering an area of up to five times the size of an Olympic swimming pool, their hydrological role, specifically to the extent which they can store water on the glacier surface, has remained unknown until now.

Study leader Tristram Irvine-Fynn from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth says that the role of these ponds could become increasingly important as the region’s climate changes.

Continue reading at American Geophysical Union

Image via Trystram Irvine-Flynn, Aberystwyth University


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