Glacial runoff from the Tian Shan and Altai Mountains is an important water resource, especially for people living in the arid areas of Central Asia. Measured water volumes from glaciers have decreased, and glacier area have shrunk with 50-90% since the Little Ice Age. Lack of knowledge regarding glaciers in high mountain areas, and the impact from climate change makes this an important field to investigate. This thesis focuses on topographic features and their impact on spatial glaciation patterns; today and during the global last glacial maximum, 19-30 thousand years ago (ka). From selected marginal moraines in the Tian Shan and Altai mountains, with a deglaciation age between 19-30 ka, an analysis was created in ArcMap (GIS, Geographic Information System) with 1 arc second resolution ASTER GDEM2 (Digital Elevation Model) and in Google Earth. An elevation profile, hypsometry and mapping were created for the analysis. The interpretations made from the limited dataset resulted in topographic features affecting the glaciation extension today and percentage of decreasing glacier area since 19-30 ka, to be connected to north/south-facing direction of the drainage area and the elevation. Drainage areas experiencing the highest percentage of glacial shrinkage were southfacing and/or at elevation below 3961 m a.s.l. / Central Asia Paleoglaciology Project
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-155171 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Sandström, Sonja |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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