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

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Cited articles

Anderson, R. S., Anderson, L. S., Armstrong, W. H., Rossi, M. W., and Crump, S. E.: Glaciation of alpine valleys: The glacier–debris-covered glacier–rock glacier continuum, Geomorphol., 311, 127–142, 2018. 
Anderson, L. S., Armstrong, W. H., Anderson, R. S., and Buri, P.: Debris cover and the thinning of Kennicott Glacier, Alaska: in situ measurements, automated ice cliff delineation and distributed melt estimates, The Cryosphere, 15, 265–282, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-265-2021, 2021. 
Ballantyne, C. K.: Paraglacial geomorphology, Quaternary Sci. Rev.,, 21, 1935–2017, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(02)00005-7, 2002. 
Benn, D. I. and Owen, L. A.: The role of the Indian summer monsoon and the mid-latitude westerlies in Himalayan glaciation: review and speculative discussion, J. Geol. Soc., 155, 353–363, 1998. 
Berthling, I.: Beyond confusion: Rock glaciers as cryo-conditioned landforms, Geomorph., 131, 98–106, 2011. 
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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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