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A&S Researchers Explore Link between Tropical Glaciers, Water Supply
http://asnews.syr.edu/newsevents_2017/releases/laura_lautz_paper.html[font face=Serif][font size=5]A&S Researchers Explore Link between Tropical Glaciers, Water Supply[/font]
[font size=4]New paper by members of Earth sciences department draws on work done in Peruvian Andes[/font]
Jan 3, 2017 | Article by: Rob Enslin
[font size=3]…
Laura Lautz G’05, associate professor of Earth sciences, is part of a multinational, interdisciplinary research team doing fieldwork in the northern Peruvian Andes. She and other researchers from A&S have been studying the groundwater hydrology of proglacial valleys—areas formed by glacier recession—in the ice-capped mountains, home to the world’s highest density of tropical glaciers.
Their findings are part of a major article in Hydrological Processes (John Wiley & Sons, 2016), co-authored by scientists and engineers from McGill University and École de Technologie Supérieur, both in Montreal; The Ohio State University (OSU); and the French Research Institute for Development in Marseille.
“Tropical glaciers in the Andes are retreating at an alarming rate,” Lautz says. “Meltwater from these glaciers is important because it sustains stream-flow during the driest months of the year. As glaciers retreat and disappear, so does the amount of meltwater. Therefore, groundwater stored in the alpine valleys of the Cordillera Blanca may become increasingly important to downstream areas.”
The Andes contain 99 percent of the world’s tropical glaciers—slow-moving rivers of ice whose high elevations are virtually unaffected by balmy tropical temperatures. Such glaciers, however, are vulnerable to climate change. One study posits that, since the 1970s, Peruvian glaciers have lost nearly half of their surface area.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]New paper by members of Earth sciences department draws on work done in Peruvian Andes[/font]
Jan 3, 2017 | Article by: Rob Enslin
[font size=3]…
Laura Lautz G’05, associate professor of Earth sciences, is part of a multinational, interdisciplinary research team doing fieldwork in the northern Peruvian Andes. She and other researchers from A&S have been studying the groundwater hydrology of proglacial valleys—areas formed by glacier recession—in the ice-capped mountains, home to the world’s highest density of tropical glaciers.
Their findings are part of a major article in Hydrological Processes (John Wiley & Sons, 2016), co-authored by scientists and engineers from McGill University and École de Technologie Supérieur, both in Montreal; The Ohio State University (OSU); and the French Research Institute for Development in Marseille.
“Tropical glaciers in the Andes are retreating at an alarming rate,” Lautz says. “Meltwater from these glaciers is important because it sustains stream-flow during the driest months of the year. As glaciers retreat and disappear, so does the amount of meltwater. Therefore, groundwater stored in the alpine valleys of the Cordillera Blanca may become increasingly important to downstream areas.”
The Andes contain 99 percent of the world’s tropical glaciers—slow-moving rivers of ice whose high elevations are virtually unaffected by balmy tropical temperatures. Such glaciers, however, are vulnerable to climate change. One study posits that, since the 1970s, Peruvian glaciers have lost nearly half of their surface area.
…[/font][/font]