Everest South Col Glacier did not thin during the period 1984–2017

Brun, Fanny; King, Owen; Réveillet, Marion; Amory, Charles; Planchot, Anton; Berthier, Etienne; Dehecq, Amaury; Bolch, Tobias; Fourteau, Kévin; Brondex, Julien; Dumont, Marie; Mayer, Christoph; Leinss, Silvan; Hugonnet, Romain; Wagnon, Patrick

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3251-2023

Articles | Volume 17, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3251-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3251-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 8

Research article

|

11 Aug 2023

Research article |

| 11 Aug 2023

Everest South Col Glacier did not thin during the period 1984–2017

Fanny Brun, Owen King, Marion Réveillet, Charles Amory, Anton Planchot, Etienne Berthier, Amaury Dehecq, Tobias Bolch, Kévin Fourteau, Julien Brondex, Marie Dumont, Christoph Mayer, Silvan Leinss, Romain Hugonnet, and Patrick Wagnon

Data sets

Pléiades DEM of 23 March 2017 - Khumbu region, Nepal Etienne Berthier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6979691

Natural color composites of VENuS images over South Col Glacier Brun, Fanny https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6685515

Digital Elevation Model and 1984-2017 surface elevation change grids over the Western Cwm of Mt Everest Owen King https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7529761

Simulation outputs associated to the study: "Brief communication: Everest South Col Glacier did not thin during the last three decades" by Brun et al. Marion Réveillet, Fanny Brun, Kevin Fourteau, Julien Brondex, and Marie Dumont https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7006744

Uncertainty calculation for South Col Glacier geodetic mass balance Romain Hugonnet https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8220229

Three layer wind erosion model for South Col Glacier A. Planchot and C. Amory https://github.com/antonplanchot/wind-snow-scg

Short summary

The South Col Glacier is a small body of ice and snow located on the southern ridge of Mt. Everest. A recent study proposed that South Col Glacier is rapidly losing mass. In this study, we examined the glacier thickness change for the period 1984–2017 and found no thickness change. To reconcile these results, we investigate wind erosion and surface energy and mass balance and find that melt is unlikely a dominant process, contrary to previous findings.