- The flow of water that supports hydro-electric and irrigation infrastructure in the mountain regions of Nepal and India is regulated by hundreds of large icy ponds on the surface of some of the world’s highest glaciers, scientists have revealed.
- Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, have shown that the ponds, which form on debris-covered glaciers in the Himalaya, control the rate at which water from melting ice flows downstream.
- With many covering an area of up to five times the size of an Olympic swimming pool, their hydrological role, specifically to the extent which they can store water on the glacier surface, has remained unknown until now.
- the role of these ponds could become increasingly important as the region’s climate changes.
- “Runoff from glaciers in the local region is an important freshwater supply and is used for agriculture and hydroelectric power.
- Water flowing from glacierized catchments in the Himalaya is a critical water resource for mountain dwellers in particular, and impacts on flows reaching the lowlands too”.
- The scientists explained the pattern of water flow as being delayed by the ponds and debris which reduce the rate at which meltwater is transferred across the glacier surface.
- The pond reservoirs are capable of accommodating the daily average monsoon rainfall, and so it is the storage volumes of those ponds, and the connections between the ponds and through the debris which will control the water flow rates
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