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Comparison of mean annual temperature range (i.e, difference between the mean air temperatures of the warmest and coldest month), mean annual air temperature extrapolated to 500 m asl (using the standard environmental lapse rate of 6.5° km⁻¹, Barry, 2008), and mean daily maximum temperature (Tmax) of the warmest month extrapolated to 500 m asl for three climate stations in the New Zealand Southern Alps and three climate stations in the European Alps. New Zealand stations: Harihari, ID 4044, 43.144 S 170.553 E, 45 m asl; Lake Tekapo, ID 4970, 44.002 S 170.441 E, 762 m asl; Timaru, ID 5095, 44.412 S 171.254 N, 17 m asl; NZ data source: NIWA, 2010; European stations: Feldkirch, 47.267 N 9.6 E, 439 m asl, source: ZAMG, 2002; Segl-Maria, ID 24, 46.43 N 9.76 E, 1804 m asl; Lugano, ID 47, 46.00 N 8.96 E, 273 m asl, Swiss data source: MeteoSchweiz, 2014. Temperature normals are derived from homogenized data series for the standard climate period 1971–2000, with the exception of mean maximum temperatures for the Swiss stations Segl-Maria and Lugano (marked with *), which were only available in homogenized form for the climate period 1981–2010. Maps: Elevation data (area > 1000 m asl): WorldClim's elevation dataset (Hijmans et al., 2005), country boundaries: Global Administrative Areas database V2.8 (GADM, 2015).
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Alpine permafrost occurrence in maritime climates has received little attention, despite suggestions that permafrost may occur at lower elevations than in continental climates. To assess the spatial and altitudinal limits of permafrost in the maritime Southern Alps, we developed and tested a catchment-scale distributed permafrost estimate. We used...
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Citations
... Active rock glaciers contain a perennially frozen mixture of debris (Brardinoni et al., 2019;Haeberli, 1985); therefore, intact rock glaciers are thought to be visible indicators of the presence/absence of permafrost (Haeberli et al., 2006), with some degree of uncertainty (Cao et al., 2021). Despite the limitations and uncertainties associated with the geomorphological categories, this classification scheme has been essentially adopted to assess the permafrost probability distribution in earlier studies, especially in the data-scarce regions of HKH (Baral et al., 2020;Haq & Baral, 2019;Hassan et al., 2021;Kääb et al., 2021;Schmid et al., 2015), and it has also been adopted in other regions (Sattler et al., 2016;Scotti et al., 2013). We also presented the qualitative uncertainty of each digitised rock glacier based on the criteria presented in Table 1. ...
Recent studies have demonstrated the rock glacier destabilisation and permafrost thawing induced by warming climate represent a continuous threat to life, infrastructure and socioeconomic development in the mountainous regions of the Hindu Kush Himalaya. This study presents the first systematic rock glacier inventory for the Shigar and Shayok basins, quantifying rock glacier geomorphology and kinematics based on morphological evidence using Google Earth images and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). The certainty index of each inventoried rock glacier is recorded, along with its geomorphological properties and kinematic attributes. The rock glacier velocity is estimated through the InSAR time series analysis of Sentinel-1 images from 2020 to 2021, with temporal baselines at 12-day intervals. We developed a rock glacier inventory consisting of 84 rock glaciers covering an area of 29 km 2 for the Shigar Basin and 2206 rock glaciers encompassing 369 km 2 for the Shayok Basin. Among these rock glaciers, 69% and 52% are categorised as active rock glaciers, respectively. Rock glaciers in both catchments are confined to elevations between 3600 and 5875 m a.s.l., with a mean area of 0.22 km 2. The maximum recorded velocity for active rock glaciers in the Shigar Basin is 101 ± 9 cm year À1 , with a median of 27 ± 10 cm year À1 , and in the Shayok Basin 114 ± 10 cm year À1 (median of 29 ± 9 cm year À1). Temporal variations in the surface velocities of the rock glaciers reveal that they increase with rising temperatures in both catchments, highlighting the seasonality in the rock glacier surface velocity. In total, we recorded the kinematic attributes of 98% of the inventoried rock glaciers in the study area. Keywords Hindu Kush Himalaya, periglacial environment, permafrost, rock glaciers, surface velocity
... The aspect and potential incoming solar radiation (PISR) play critical roles in the development and persistence of RGs (Wang et al., 2017;Pandey, 2019). The PISR was derived from 30 m SRTM DEM using the Area Solar Radiation tool in ArcMap 10.4 for the summer months (1 June to 30 September) with relatively minimal snow cover (Baral et al., 2019;Sattler et al., 2016). ...
The northwestern (NW) Himalayan region, which has a semi-arid to dry climate, is climatologically very fragile and susceptible to future drought conditions. The limited agricultural land and its dependence on the diminishing meltwater reserves have severely impacted local communities. Even though indigenous peoples that rely on glaciers and snowmelt have evolved peculiar water management and agro-pastoral techniques, their fate in the future will heavily rely on the climatically more resilient rock glaciers (RGs). Despite their significance, comprehensive research on this valuable resource is sparse. The present study focusing on the NW Himalayas (∼222,343 km2) has shown the existence of ∼3082 intact RGs covering an area of ∼1466.6 km2 with a mean specific density of 1.7 % Following the classification of the International Permafrost Association, out of these 3082 RGs, 1205 were glacier connected (GC), 1043 talus connected (TC), 568 debris-mantled slope-connected (DC), and 266 glacier-fore-field connected (GFC) RGs. We have estimated the water volume equivalents (WVEQ) of these RGs by assuming that the average amount of ice in TC and DC was 20 % (lower range), 30 % (middle range), and 40 % (higher range). For GC and GFC RGs, it was 40 % (low range), 50 % (middle range), and 60 % (upper range). The GC RGs had an estimated WVEQ of 12.69 km3 to 19.04 km3, whereas the GFC RGs had 2.26 km3 to 3.40 km3 of WVEQ. The TC RGs hold 0.66 km3 to 1.32 km3 WVEQ, and the DC RGs store 2.30 km3 to 4.60 km3 WVEQ. The total WVEQ storage varies from 17.91 km3 (lowest) to 28.36 km3 (highest), corresponding to 17.91 to 28.36 trillion liters. Considering all of this, we propose that the hydrological significance of these water resources in deglacierizing Himalayas will increase over the coming decades, hence calling for multidisciplinary systematic investigations, notably their hydrology and reliable water volume estimates contained in them.
... Bonnaventure etLewkowicz (2008) ont constaté que le pergélisol des sites maritimes nuageux en Colombie-Britannique, près de la frontière de l'Alaska, n'avait aucune relation avec le potentiel de SWin, mais que les sites plus continentaux en avaient une. En Nouvelle-Zélande,Sattler et al. (2016) ont attribué le pergélisol de basse altitude dans les pentes couvertes de débris à la nébulosité estivale du climat maritime.15 Gisnås et ses collègues (2017) ont constaté que les limites inférieures du pergélisol dans le nord de la Norvège diminuaient en altitude en fonction de la distance par rapport à l'océan. ...
... 14 Bonnaventure and Lewkowicz (2008) found that permafrost of cloudy maritime sites in BC near the border of Alaska had no relationship to potential SWin but that more continental sites did. In New Zealand, Sattler et al. (2016) attributed low-elevation permafrost in debris-covered slopes to summer cloudiness of the maritime climate. ...
... In addition, some studies have suggested that rock glaciers might be important sources of water, especially in dry and cold environments [28,36,37]. For all of these reasons, rock glacier inventories have become a priority in many countries around the globe and many studies are contributing towards the creation of regional and global databases, with thousands of rock glaciers identified and analyzed throughout entire regions [38][39][40][41][42]. Concurrently, important efforts from the rock glacier research community have been made to establish standards and guidelines for consistent mapping in order to minimize the uncertainties related to subjective decisions [43,44]. ...
Rock glaciers are an integral part of the periglacial environment. At the regional scale in the Greater Caucasus, there have been no comprehensive systematic efforts to assess the distribution of rock glaciers, although some individual parts of ranges have been mapped before. In this study we produce the first inventory of rock glaciers from the entire Greater Caucasus region—Russia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. A remote sensing survey was conducted using Geo-Information System (GIS) and Google Earth Pro software based on high-resolution satellite imagery—SPOT, Worldview, QuickBird, and IKONOS, based on data obtained during the period 2004–2021. Sentinel-2 imagery from the year 2020 was also used as a supplementary source. The ASTER GDEM (2011) was used to determine location, elevation, and slope for all rock glaciers. Using a manual approach to digitize rock glaciers, we discovered that the mountain range contains 1461 rock glaciers with a total area of 297.8 ± 23.0 km2. Visual inspection of the morphology suggests that 1018 rock glaciers with a total area of 199.6 ± 15.9 km2 (67% of the total rock glacier area) are active, while the remaining rock glaciers appear to be relict. The average maximum altitude of all rock glaciers is found at 3152 ± 96 m above sea level (a.s.l.) while the mean and minimum altitude are 3009 ± 91 m and 2882 ± 87 m a.s.l., respectively. We find that the average minimum altitude of active rock glaciers is higher (2955 ± 98 m a.s.l.) than in relict rock glaciers (2716 ± 83 m a.s.l.). No clear difference is discernible between the surface slope of active (41.4 ± 3°) and relict (38.8 ± 4°) rock glaciers in the entire mountain region. This inventory provides a database for understanding the extent of permafrost in the Greater Caucasus and is an important basis for further research of geomorphology and palaeoglaciology in this region. The inventory will be submitted to the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) database and can be used for future studies.
... This role will increase in the future considering the rapid glacier retreat (Huss et al. 2017;Bosson, Huss, and Osipova 2019). For several decades, rock glaciers have also been considered as the visible expression of permafrost creep in unconsolidated sediment and therefore have been frequently used as input data for modeling the permafrost spatial extension (Lambiel and Reynard 2001;Boeckli et al. 2012;Schmid et al. 2015;Sattler et al. 2016;Azócar, Brenning, and Bodin 2017;Deluigi, Lambiel, and Kanevski 2017;Marcer et al. 2017). The influence of increasing temperatures on rock glacier velocities has been shown in several studies (e.g., Kääb, Frauenfelder, and Roer 2007), of which a few have evidenced the general acceleration of rock glaciers in the context of a warmer climate (e.g., Scapozza et al. 2014;Cusicanqui et al. 2021;Fleischer et al. 2021;Kääb et al. 2021;Marcer et al. 2021;Vivero et al. 2021). ...
... From this study, Allen, Owens, and Huggel (2008) estimated the permafrost distribution in the Aoraki/Mount Cook region. Later, Sattler et al. (2016) provided the first comprehensive inventory of talus-derived rock glaciers for the Southern Alps of New Zealand, in which a categorization of the rock glacier activity was proposed from aerial image analyses. In this study, the rock glaciers were not outlined but sampled at the rock glacier initiation line to develop a model of the permafrost distribution. ...
... Hence, the glacier coverage is extensive around the highest areas close to the Main Divide, hindering the development of rock glaciers. Sattler et al. (2016) showed that most of the rock glaciers in the Southern Alps are located in the central part of the mountain range; that is, from southwest to northeast in the Barrier Range, the Ben Ohau Range, the Liebig Range, the Two Thumb Range, as well as in the Lake Heron and Arthur's Pass regions. In their study, 75 active and 88 inactive rock glaciers, as well as 220 relict landforms, were identified based on the interpretation of aerial images. ...
In this study, we inventoried and mapped the active and transitional rock glaciers in the central part of the Southern Alps, New Zealand, using Sentinel-1 InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) data. We used forty-three interferograms acquired between 2015 and 2019 with time intervals between six days and two years along with orthoimage analyses. A total of 123 rock glaciers were identified, of which 40 are active; that is, displaying velocities higher than 10 cm/yr. The remaining landforms are considered transitional. Among the complete sample of rock glaciers inventoried, 9 may also be interpreted as debris-covered glacierets. The number of inventoried landforms is low compared to what is observed in other similar mountain ranges, such as the European Alps. We explain this by the reduced vertical extent of the periglacial belt and the generally steep topography often not favorable for rock glacier development. Additionally, the motion rates appear relatively low. We hypothesize that a mean annual air temperature at the rock glacier locations well above 0°C is the main reason for this. These conditions may have resulted in significant ground ice melt. Rock glaciers in the Southern Alps are thus in an inactivation phase, which is expressed by typical morphologies such as stable fronts.
... Because of the complexity of permafrost distribution, temperaturederived parameters have aroused an increasing interest because of the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the measuring instruments Batbaatar et al., 2020). Among these, ground surface temperature (GST) and winter equilibrium temperature (WEqT) are the most adopted parameters (Wu et al., 2013;Sattler et al., 2016;Onaca et al., 2020). GST is measured in the uppermost centimetres of the soil and is strictly related to air temperature; mean annual GST values below or close to 0 • C indicate the existence of permafrost (Guglielmin, 2006;Cremonese et al., 2011). ...
... Based on permafrost presence and mobility of rock glacier, three activity states are distinguished: active (containing ice, moving), inactive (containing ice, not moving), and relict rock glaciers (not containing ice, not moving) (Martin and Whalley, 1987). Latest rock glacier inventory for the Southern Alps has been recently completed by Sattler et al. (2016) accounting majority of rock glaciers to the east of the Main Divide in high-altitude areas (Sattler et al., 2016). Based on this study almost 60% of the mapped rock glaciers were classified as relict 50 features that no longer contain ice. ...
... Based on permafrost presence and mobility of rock glacier, three activity states are distinguished: active (containing ice, moving), inactive (containing ice, not moving), and relict rock glaciers (not containing ice, not moving) (Martin and Whalley, 1987). Latest rock glacier inventory for the Southern Alps has been recently completed by Sattler et al. (2016) accounting majority of rock glaciers to the east of the Main Divide in high-altitude areas (Sattler et al., 2016). Based on this study almost 60% of the mapped rock glaciers were classified as relict 50 features that no longer contain ice. ...
... Although distinguishing inactive rock glaciers from active or relict features is generally difficult even based on high-resolution aerial imagery and thus essentially associated with high uncertainty (Nyenhuis, 2006). Similar relict rock glaciers were also found by Sattler et al. (2016) on the eastern slope of the Ōhau Range, next to the Ahuriri River East Branch (e.g. 44°18'42"S, 169°46'42E). ...
One of the outstanding problems in modern geoscience is identifying the cause of past climate changes, particularly the drivers of rapid climate change during Quaternary glacial cycles. Changes in the physical geography of Earth’s surface during the Late Quaternary are mainly dependent on glacial dynamics – periods of rapid warming produced significant amounts of meltwater that reshaped the landscape, changed global sea-level and influenced climate. Identifying the timing of key climate transitions during past warming episodes, such as the last glacial termination, may help to understand the future evolution of Earth’s climate system (e.g. Denton et al., 2021).
In this thesis, using geomorphological mapping and sixty-six cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure ages obtained from ice sculpted bedrock surfaces and deposited moraine landforms, I constrain the local Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent timing of last glacial termination in the Ahuriri River valley, Southern Alps, New Zealand (44°15′S, 169°36′E). Using the maximum elevation of lateral moraine (MELM) and accumulation area ratio (AAR) methods, along with application of a temperature lapse rate, I estimate the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) and associated temperatures from the same periods. The largest glacial event in the Ahuriri River valley occurred at 19.8±0.3 ka when the former Ahuriri Glacier reached its maximum extent, which coincides with the global Last Glacial Maximum. By 16.7±0.3 ka, ice had retreated ~18 km up-valley from the LGM position and deglaciation was accompanied by the formation of a shallow proglacial lake. Surface exposure ages from moraines situated in a tributary of the upper Ahuriri River valley indicate that a subsequent advance of the palaeo glacier culminated at 14.5±0.3 ka, while the next readvance or still stand occurred at 13.6±0.3 ka. About 1000 yr later (12.6±0.2 ka), the former glacier built another prominent terminal moraine ridge in the lower section of the upper right tributary valley.
Reconstructions of past glacier geometries indicate that the local ELA was depressed by ~880 m and climate was 5±1 °C colder than present (1981–2010) at 19.8±0.3 ka, while ELA was depressed by ~770 m and climate was 4.4±0.9 °C colder at 16.7±0.3 ka. Subsequent estimations suggest ELA elevations at 14.5±0.3 ka, 13.6±0.3 ka, and 12.6±0.2 ka were ≤700 m, ≤630 m, and ~360 m lower than today. This equates to air temperatures of ≤3.9 °C, ≤3.5 °C, and 2.3±0.7 °C colder than today, assuming no changes in past precipitation.
The results reported here provide the first dataset of Late Quaternary glacial maximum extent and deglaciation along with quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions from the Ahuriri River valley, Southern Alps, New Zealand. The small amount of warming estimated in this study between 19.8±0.3 and 16.7±0.3 ka differs somewhat from glacial reconstructions in other major valleys in the Southern Alps, specifically from Rakaia River valley (e.g. Putnam et al., 2013a) where a much larger amount of warming may have occurred during the same time. Robust constraints of glacier changes in the Ahuriri valley between 14.5±0.3 and 12.6±0.2 ka confirm that an early glacier readvance occurred in New Zealand at this time, which has been previously recognised with only limited evidence (e.g. Kaplan et al., 2010; Putnam et al., 2010a). The reconstructed ELA suggests that the coldest part of the Late Glacial reversal occurred at 14.5±0.3 ka.
The new constraints from glacial records in the Ahuriri River valley presented in this study offer the opportunity to test hypotheses about the climate system, to better understand the processes that drove ice retreat and readvance during the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent termination.
... The statistical modeling of rock glaciers and their relationship with climatic conditions near rock glacier sites has been used to predict the permafrost distribution in various regions of the world [23][24][25]. Most of the studies related to permafrost and its dynamics are focused on the polar region and some European highlands, but there are very few studies and explorations related to permafrost as far as the Indian Himalayan region is concerned. ...
... Surface structure Prominent furrow and ridge topography [51] Less prominent furrow and ridge topography [51] Body Bulged swollen structure [52] Exposure of ice on the surface in some places [53] Flat and subdued surface topography [52] Deflated surface feature [54] Frontal Lobe Sharp-crested frontal lobe slope [55] Gentle transition from frontal lobe to body [55] In the present study, the initiation points of the active rock glaciers were considered as an indication of the presence of permafrost [25,56], as the climatic conditions that support the presence of ice-rich permafrost are primarily found in these zones. In alignment with previous studies [23,25,57], relict rock glaciers were considered as evidence of permafrost absence. ...
... Surface structure Prominent furrow and ridge topography [51] Less prominent furrow and ridge topography [51] Body Bulged swollen structure [52] Exposure of ice on the surface in some places [53] Flat and subdued surface topography [52] Deflated surface feature [54] Frontal Lobe Sharp-crested frontal lobe slope [55] Gentle transition from frontal lobe to body [55] In the present study, the initiation points of the active rock glaciers were considered as an indication of the presence of permafrost [25,56], as the climatic conditions that support the presence of ice-rich permafrost are primarily found in these zones. In alignment with previous studies [23,25,57], relict rock glaciers were considered as evidence of permafrost absence. While digitizing their initiation point, in some cases it was observed that there are no clear markings or visible rooting zones because of the presence of vegetation and subdued surface topography. ...
The Indian Himalayan region is experiencing frequent hazards and disasters related to permafrost. However, research on permafrost in this region has received very little or no attention. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge about the spatial distribution and state of permafrost in the Indian Himalayas. Modern remote sensing techniques, with the help of a geographic information system (GIS), can assess permafrost at high altitudes, largely over inaccessible mountainous terrains in the Himalayas. To assess the spatial distribution of permafrost in the Alaknanda Valley of the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state, 198 rock glaciers were mapped (183 active and 15 relict) using high-resolution satellite data available in the Google Earth database. A logistic regression model (LRM) was used to identify a relationship between the presence of permafrost at the rock glacier sites and the predictor variables, i.e., the mean annual air temperature (MAAT), the potential incoming solar radiation (PISR) during the snow-free months, and the aspect near the margins of rock glaciers. Two other LRMs were also developed using moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived land surface temperature (LST) and snow cover products. The MAAT-based model produced the best results, with a classification accuracy of 92.4%, followed by the snow-cover-based model (91.9%), with the LST-based model being the least accurate (82.4%). All three models were developed to compare their accuracy in predicting permafrost distribution. The results from the MAAT-based model were validated with the global permafrost zonation index (PZI) map, which showed no significant differences. However, the predicted model exhibited an underestimation of the area underlain by permafrost in the region compared to the PZI. Identifying the spatial distribution of permafrost will help us to better understand the impact of climate change on permafrost and its related hazards and provide necessary information to decision makers to mitigate permafrost-related disasters in the high mountain regions.
... The binary logistic regression model has been found appropriate to calculate the probability of permafrost distribution and has been applied in several studies worldwide (Sattler et al., 2016;Deluigi et al., 2017;Baral et al.,2019;Hassan et al.,2021). We assumed that rock glaciers are indirect indicators of permafrost 155 and use their inventory classified by activity status as the dependent variable, as well as used spatially distributed local topo-climatic data, i.e., the longitude, latitude, altitude, MAGT, mean annual precipitation, slope as the independent variables. ...
Rock glaciers are important hydrological reserves in arid and semi-arid zones, their activity status can indicate the existence of permafrost. We provided a more detailed rock glaciers inventory of Guokalariju (GKLRJ) to explore the development mechanism of rock glaciers in the transition belt between the semi-arid zone and humid zone, as well as estimate the water volume equivalent (WVEQ) and permafrost distribution probability. Results show that about 5053 rock glaciers were identified, covering a total area of 428.71 km2 at 4600–5300 m a.s.l. The main climate types in semi-arid zones and the extensive existence of ancient glaciers remain provided a basis for developing a large number of talus-derived rock glaciers. Rock glaciers are most developed in the alpine and moderate dry climate, and their altitude decreases with the increase of precipitation, and they depend on the original terrain strongly and are most concentrated on the west-facing aspect. The ratio of WVEQ in the intact rock glaciers of GKLRJ to glaciers is about 1:1.63, and the permafrost in the central and western regions has shown an apparent degradation trend in recent decades. These findings enrich the research on the evolution rules of rock glaciers in the semi-arid to humid alpine mountains in the Tibetan Plateau and further guide the development and management of local water resources and disaster prevention and reduction.
