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Surface flow on the ablation area of the Lirung Galcier in Langtang Valley, Nepal Himalayas

1998; Volume: 16; Issue: 16 Linguagem: Inglês

0913-4190

Nozomu Naito, Masayoshi Nakawo, Tatsuto Aoki, Katsuhiko Asahi, Koji Fujita, Akiko Sakai, Tsutomu Kadota, Takayuki Shiraiwa, Katsumoto Seko,

Winter Sports Injuries and Performance

Surface flow velocities on the ablation area of the Lirung Glacier were calculated from the results of six surveys since 1989 to 1996. The annual flow speeds were about 6 m a -1 on the upper part of the ablation area near the icefall and the summer speeds were about one and half times faster than that. Around 2 km downstream from the upper part, the annual speeds decreased to about 2 m a -1 and the summer speeds were a little faster than that. Ice thickness was estimated, using the laminar flow theory, to be about 100 m or more than that in the upper part and about 50 m in the lower part of the ablation area. The rate of surface lowering was also preliminarily estimated, using the continuity equation, to be a little less than 20 cm a -1 on the average in the ablation area.