Glacier area in China shrinks 26% over past 60 years

Sharjah 24 – WAM: The glacier area in China has shrunk by about 26 percent over the past 60 years, with approximately 7,000 small glaciers completely disappearing, according to data from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

World Day for Glaciers

Friday marked the first World Day for Glaciers, during which researchers released the dataset of China's third glacier inventory at the 3rd Chinese Conference of Cryospheric Science in Lingshui, Hainan province.

69,000 glaciers in total

According to China Daily, the data shows that around 2020, the total glacier area in China was approximately 46,000 square kilometres, with about 69,000 glaciers in total.

Compared to the first inventory of Chinese glaciers, the country's glacier area decreased by 4.8 percent per decade from the 1960s to 2020.

In comparison with the second Chinese glacier inventory, China's glacier area decreased by about 6 percent, which equals 5.2 percent per decade, from 2008 to 2020, indicating that China's glaciers have entered a rapid phase of retreat in recent years, according to the data.