Because of global warming, the glaciers of the Himalayas are melting so intensely that lakes are formed from their melt water. And the glaciers themselves are becoming like Swiss cheese
For several years, Ulyana Horodyskyj of the University of Colorado at Boulder (USA) and her colleagues have observed the state of Spillway Lake, which forms the Ngozumpa Glacier. It is located at the foot of Mount Cho Oyu (this name is translated from Tibetan as "turquoise queen") in Nepal, which is located 20 kilometers from the highest peak in the world - Everest.
Glacial lake
The depth of Lake Spilway reaches one hundred meters, the length is six, and the width is one kilometer, according to BBC News. Scientists are concerned about the constant flow of water into the lake from a melting glacier. In their opinion, this can cause a breakthrough of a dam made of debris - then powerful streams will fall on the settlements of people located below the slope. According to Gorodetskaya, Ngozumpa is melting very quickly. For example, when the lake lost 100 thousand cubic meters of water in two days (due to the breakthrough of the banks in several places), in five days half of this volume was restored due to melt water from the glacier.
According to Gorodetskaya, the disappearance of the glacier is aggravated by a large amount of moraine - debris in the form of boulders of various sizes. This accumulation of rocks makes the surface of the glacier darker, so it absorbs more solar energy due to low albedo values and melts faster. In addition, the glacier runs through a network of empty thawed spaces and small lakes. Gorodetskaya suggested that all these lakes are connected by a system of canals.
The caves inside
“It is known that the glaciers in this region are melting due to global warming, but few people understand how this melting occurs. For example, Ngozumpa has become like Swiss cheese with empty cavities inside. Because of this, the melting process is only going faster,”says Dr. Doug Benn from the University Center in Svalbard, Norway. According to him, in those places where there are free cavities, when the temperature rises, collapses often occur. Moreover, this process also accelerates a large amount of moraine on the surface of the glacier. After all, the additional load only leads to the collapse of the fragile arches of the labyrinth.
Another evidence of the active melting of the Himalayas was recently found by Chinese scientists. They discovered in the middle part of this mountain system in the Gurla-Mandhata region, two glacial lakes, which were formed recently and are also filled with melt water from glaciers.