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New Zealand's glaciers

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: January 26, 2011, 09:56:57 am »


Heavy snow likely to bolster southern glaciers

By PAUL GORMAN, Science Reporter - The Press | Monday, 15 September 2008

GLACIAL FUTURE: Heavy alpine snowfalls in the South Island this winter could temporarily halt or even reverse the continuing decline of some glaciers in the Southern Alps. Meanwhile, Franz Josef Glacier (pictured) and the nearby Fox Glacier in Westland National Park both buck the worldwide trend as they continue to advance. ALAN WOOD/The Press.
GLACIAL FUTURE: Heavy alpine snowfalls in the South Island
this winter could temporarily halt or even reverse the
continuing decline of some glaciers in the Southern Alps.
Meanwhile, Franz Josef Glacier (pictured) and the nearby
Fox Glacier in Westland National Park both buck the
worldwide trend as they continue to advance.
 — ALAN WOOD/The Press.


HEAVY ALPINE SNOWFALLS in the South Island this winter could temporarily halt or even reverse the continuing decline of glaciers in the Southern Alps.

The latest survey by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) draws the gloomy conclusion that the country's glaciers are shrinking at an alarming rate.

The total ice volume of the Southern Alps' glaciers is 44.9 cubic km, the least since the annual survey began 32 years ago.

The 50 glaciers in the survey lost 2.5 cu km, or 2.2 billion tonnes, of permanent ice in the 12 months from April 2007, the fourth greatest annual loss on record. That was reflected in a mean South Island snowline over the period of 1960m above sea level, 130m higher than the 1976-2008 average.

However, the stormy winter means the snowpack in some parts of the Southern Alps is the greatest it has been for about a decade.

Power company Meridian Energy is eagerly awaiting a large spring thaw and the boost it will give to its southern hydro-lakes, which are only just starting to recover from very low levels throughout the winter.

Niwa principal climate scientist Jim Salinger said that extra snow could boost the ice mass quite quickly in some smaller glaciers but would not show up in larger glaciers for years.

"It depends what happens over the summer. We've still got the snow melt to come that's November to February and maybe March. If it's a cold summer, it might halt the decline a little, but the general trend is downward."

There was also a chance of late spring snowfalls.

The shrinking of the glaciers was due to climate change, Salinger said.

"Temperatures have increased a degree over a whole century, and by about three-tenths of a degree since 1960."

The melting trend in New Zealand matched that globally.

"International monitoring of mountain glaciers by the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Switzerland shows most glaciers are retreating," Salinger said.

"Of the glaciers where continuous data is available, the mean annual average loss in ice thickness since 1980 is close to half a metre per year."


http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4692591a19753.html
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