Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4113-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4113-2025
Invited perspective article
 | 
30 Sep 2025
Invited perspective article |  | 30 Sep 2025

Will landscape responses reduce glacier sensitivity to climate change in High Mountain Asia?

Stephan Harrison, Adina Racoviteanu, Sarah Shannon, Darren Jones, Karen Anderson, Neil Glasser, Jasper Knight, Anna Ranger, Arindan Mandal, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Dan Shugar, Umesh Haritashya, Dongfeng Li, Aristeidis Koutroulis, Klaus Wyser, and Sam Inglis

Data sets

Inventory of dated moraines in the Himalaya to support: Harrison S et al. Will landscape responses reduce glacier sensitivity to climate change in High Mountain Asia? The Cryosphere, egusphere-2024-4033 Stephan Harrison https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15828526

Rock glaciers in the Himalaya A. Racoviteanu et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11237094

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Short summary
Climate change is leading to a global recession of mountain glaciers, and numerical modelling suggests that this will result in the rapid disappearance of many glaciers, impacting water supplies. However, an alternative scenario suggests that increased rock fall and debris flows to valley bottoms will cover glaciers with thick rock debris, slowing melting and transforming glaciers into rock–ice mixtures called rock glaciers. This paper explores these scenarios.
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