St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Six decades (1958–2018) of geodetic glacier mass balance in Monte San Lorenzo, Patagonian Andes

Thumbnail
View/Open
Falaschi_2019_FES_Sixdecades_CC.pdf (13.51Mb)
Date
11/12/2019
Author
Falaschi, Daniel
Lenzano, María Gabriela
Villalba, Ricardo
Bolch, Tobias
Rivera, Andrés
Lo Vecchio, Andrés
Keywords
Geodetic mass balance
Glacier retreat
Glacial lake
Monte San Lorenzo
Patagonian Andes
GE Environmental Sciences
NDAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
A full understanding of glacier changes in the Patagonian Andes over decadal to century time-scales is presently limited by a lack of detailed and appropriate long-term observations. Here, we present geodetic mass and area changes of three valley glaciers from Monte San Lorenzo derived from stereo aerial photos, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and satellite imagery (SPOT5 and Pleiades) spanning four periods from 1958 to 2018. Our results indicate that net mass balance was negative throughout the six decades, with a mean mass loss of −1.35 ± 0.08 m w.e. a–1 and a total glacier area loss of 14.2 ± 0.7 km2 (23 ± 1% or 0.40 ± 0.02% a–1). The period 1981–2000 had the most negative mass budget, with an area-averaged mass loss of 1.67 ± 0.11 m w.e. a–1 and a maximum loss of −2.23 ± 0.07 m w.e. a–1 at San Lorenzo Sur glacier. Over the periods of 2000–2012 and 2012–2018, the mass budget of these three glaciers remained virtually unchanged at −1.37 ± 0.06 and −1.36 ± 0.17 m w.e. a–1, respectively. To place these results into a broader geographical context, the mass balance of a further 15 glaciers from around the Monte San Lorenzo massif was determined from 2000 onwards. This wider analysis reveals a period of reduced mass loss of −0.13 ± 0.21 m w.e. a–1 from 2012 to 2018 after a period of enhanced mass loss of −0.31 ± 0.16 m w.e. a–1 between 2000 and 2012. We find that increasing air temperatures coupled with diminishing precipitation across the region explains the observed patterns and are the main drivers of the negative mass budget. Furthermore, increased calving and melting into recently formed proglacial lakes has further enhanced mass loss at some lake-terminating glaciers.
Citation
Falaschi , D , Lenzano , M G , Villalba , R , Bolch , T , Rivera , A & Lo Vecchio , A 2019 , ' Six decades (1958–2018) of geodetic glacier mass balance in Monte San Lorenzo, Patagonian Andes ' , Frontiers in Earth Science , vol. 7 , 326 . https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00326
Publication
Frontiers in Earth Science
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00326
ISSN
2296-6463
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 Falaschi, Lenzano, Villalba, Bolch, Rivera and Lo Vecchio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Description
This research was funded by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica (Grants PICT 2007-0379 and PICT 2016-1282). RV was partially supported by the Foundation BNP-Paribas through THEMES project. AR acknowledges FONDECYT 1171832 and CECs.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19140

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter