Glaciers in Asian Range Are Gaining Ice, Study Says

A new study has found that a series of glaciers located in a mountain range along the rim of the Tibetan plateau may actually be gaining mass, in contrast to global trends. In an analysis of satellite data, a team of French researchers found that numerous glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range, which straddles China’s border with India and Pakistan, increased in ice thickness from 1999 to 2008. While it is unclear why glaciers in this mountain range are getting thicker as most of the planet’s glaciers are losing ice, recent studies suggest that the region’s climate has actually cooled; from 1961 to 2000, weather stations recorded increases in winter precipitation and lower summer temperatures. Otherwise, “we have no idea what’s behind the odd behavior of these glaciers, or when it started,” said Julie Gardelle, a glaciologist at the University of Grenoble in France and lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.