Vargha Poralli
20th February 2007, 16:42
Peru's glacier is vanishing (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/02/16/science-glacier.html)
What makes this thing different is that the glaciers in tropical places like Andes and Himalayas have been overlooked as scientists concentrated more on the polar regions.
Originally posted by From the article
Ohio State glaciologist Lonnie Thompson and a team of scientists said they have found evidence the Qori Kalis glacier of the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes could lose half its mass in 12 months and could be gone five years from now.
.......
The Quelccaya ice cap covers 44 square kilometres in the Cordillera Oriental region and is the world's largest tropical ice mass. Its biggest glacier, the Qori Kalis, has receded by at least 1.1 kilometres since 1963, when the first formal measurements were taken. The rate of retreat has increased from six metres per year between 1963 and 1978 to 60 metres per year now, said Thompson.
What makes this thing different is that the glaciers in tropical places like Andes and Himalayas have been overlooked as scientists concentrated more on the polar regions.
Originally posted by From the article
Ohio State glaciologist Lonnie Thompson and a team of scientists said they have found evidence the Qori Kalis glacier of the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes could lose half its mass in 12 months and could be gone five years from now.
.......
The Quelccaya ice cap covers 44 square kilometres in the Cordillera Oriental region and is the world's largest tropical ice mass. Its biggest glacier, the Qori Kalis, has receded by at least 1.1 kilometres since 1963, when the first formal measurements were taken. The rate of retreat has increased from six metres per year between 1963 and 1978 to 60 metres per year now, said Thompson.