CHANGES IN THE SIZE AND CONDITION OF THE GLACIERS IN KAZAKHSTAN FOR THE LAST 60 YEARS (1955–2015)

Abstract

In 1960–70s, a complete Inventory of the Kazakhstanglaciers had been prepared in the framework of the All-Union Glacier Inventory Program. All the morphometric parameters of the glaciers together with area and linear dimensions of them, and the absolute heights of characteristic points were determined from the 1:100 000 scale topographic maps and aerial photography of 1955–1956. In the late 1970‑s and in 1990, new inventories of glaciers of the Zailiysky and Dzungarian Alatau were prepared by the same procedure from the 1:25  000 scale topographic maps and aerial photography. Since the beginning of the 20th century, satellite images and GIS technologies were used for this purpose. In this work, the magnitudes and rate of changes in the number of glaciers, their areas and volumes, as well as their mass balance for 60 years (1955–2015) were obtained using data from different inventories. It was found that during the period under investigation the area of glaciation of Kazakhstandecreased from 1744.8 down to 1032.1 km², i.е. by 712.7 km². The relative decrease in the area of ice was 40.8% (0,68% per a year). The largest losses of the glacier areas took place on the northern slopes of the Zailiysky and Dzungarsky Alatau – 124.8 and 121.6 km², respectively. The volume of ice decreased by more than 30 km³ (42.5%). The loss of the ice mass over the whole glacier area is approximately equal to20 m in the water equivalent. Data on the glacier degradation inKazakhstan obtained over the past 60 years provide the basis for monitoring of future glacier changes under conditions of the present-day climate.