Bolivia, which holds 20 percent of the world's tropical glaciers has seen its glaciers shrink by 43% since the mid-1980s. The melting has left behind at least 25 unstable glacial lakes capable of causing sudden and catastrophic outburst floods.

 

A new study conducted using satellite images made by the Landsat spacecraft used at USGS has found that Bolivian glaciers shrunk by 43% between 1986 and 2014. Based on current trends, the researchers estimated that the glaciers could shrink by more than 90 percent by 2100.

 

The researchers also found that as the glaciers recede, they are creating high altitude lakes. Some of them are in natural dips in the bedrock; some are accidentally dammed behind walls of glacial debris. All such lakes are susceptible to rockfalls, earthquakes and avalanches that can breach them causing dangerous flooding for mountain communities downstream.

 

The risk for glacial lake outburst floods has increased substantially in the past decade as climate change advances. Hundreds of potentially dangerous glacial lakes have formed in the Himalayas during the past few decades. In Bolivia, a glacier outburst flood in 2009 washed away farm animals, crops, and bridges.

 

Receding glaciers also endanger the water supply. The melted water from glaciers is an important source of drinking water and hydroelectric power both for the capital La Paz and neighbouring El Alto which has a combined population of more than 2 million people. (Digital Journal)

 

 

PHOTO: Large piece of ice collapses as the glacier advances.

CREDIT: Calyponte.