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Global-scale glacier shrinkage is one of the most prominent signs of ongoing climatic change. However, important differences in glacier response exist at the regional scale, and evidence has accumulated that one particular region stands out: the Karakoram. In the past two decades, the region has shown balanced to slightly positive glacier budgets, an increase in glacier ice flow speeds, stable to partially advancing glacier termini and widespread glacier surge activity. This is in stark contrast to the rest of High Mountain Asia, where glacier retreat and slowdown dominate, and glacier surging is largely absent. Termed the Karakoram Anomaly, recent observations show that the anomalous glacier behaviour partially extends to the nearby Western Kun Lun and Pamir. Several complementary explanations have now been presented for the Anomaly’s deeper causes, but our understanding is far from complete. Whether the Anomaly will continue to exist in the coming decades remains unclear, but its long-term persistence seems unlikely in light of the considerable warming anticipated by current projections of future climate.

The Karakoram contains the greatest concentration of glaciers and most of the largest ice masses outside high latitudes. They comprise major stores and sources of fresh water in an otherwise extreme, continental, dry region. As many as 200 million people living downstream, in the valleys of the Indus and Yarkand Rivers, depend on melt waters from snow and ice. They are at risk from climate-change impacts on glaciers and water supply, and from hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods. Useful research initiatives go back to the nineteenth century, but coverage has generally been limited geographically and has not been continuous over time. It is almost 80 years since a monograph was devoted to the Karakoram glaciers. The book presents a comprehensive overview, including statistics for the ice cover, glacier mass balance and dynamics, glacierized landscapes, rock glaciers, water resources and environmental hazards. Published glaciological and related research is surveyed along with expedition reports and archival materials in several languages. The expanding potential of satellite coverage is exploited, but conditions and processes reported from field investigations are the main focus. Previously unpublished observations by the author are presented, based on some 45 years of work in the region. Broad understanding of the glacial environment is used to address emerging concerns about the High Asian cryosphere and the fate of its glaciers. These are discussed in relation to the pressing issues of water supply, environmental risk and sustainability. Questions of what is not known help identify much needed monitoring and research. The book is of interest to researchers, professionals, and those studying glaciers, mountain environments, water resources and environmental hazards. The topics discussed should be of concern for anyone involved in regional development and global change in South and Inner Asia.

The granites and granite gneisses from a tectono-metamorphic complex exposed along the Shyok Valley in the Karakoram region, India, forms the southern margin of Asian plate in the India-Asia collision zone. These rocks have been subjected to mineralogical, geochemical, and U-Pb zircon geochronological investigations to constrain the petrogenetic and geodynamic evolution of the Karakoram terrane. Outcrop-scale observations reveal the presence of pre- and syn-kinematic leucogranite bodies intruded within the granites and granite gneisses. The foliation-parallel deformed leucogranite sill shows the dextral shear sense in an extensive metamorphic complex that is in concordance with the Karakoram Fault (KF) in the Ladakh region, NW India. Whole-rock elemental and biotite chemistry equivocally suggest subduction-related metaluminous (I-type) calc-alkaline nature for most of the host granites and gneisses, and generation of syn-collisional peraluminous (S-type) leucogranites through crustal anatexis of pre-existing rocks. The obtained U-Pb zircon ages for the granites, granite gneisses, deformed and undeformed leucogranites vary widely from ca. 160 Ma to 15 Ma and reveal: (a) the initiation of subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic crust beneath the southern Asian Plate at least ~160 Ma ago, and (b) existence of continuous or intermittent deformation along ~1000 km long lithospheric scale dextral KF during ~27−15 Ma.

The Himalaya‐Karakoram‐Tibet (HKT) orogen provides an unrivaled opportunity to study the dynamic linkages between deep and surface processes during collisional orogenesis. However, these efforts are hindered by conflicting interpretations on the number and timing of collisional events, and the timing of crustal thickening and associated surface uplift. Here, we resolve this with quantitative paleo‐crustal thickness estimates in the northwestern HKT orogen. We show that: (a) the paleo‐Asian margin had thick crust (50–60 km) at least 65 Ma prior to terminal collision, consistent with a continental arc setting, (b) crustal thickening to 60 km or more occurred at ca. 60–50 Ma in the Kohistan‐Ladakh arc and by 40–25 Ma in the paleo‐Asian margin, indicating a multi‐stage Himalayan collision, and (c) modern crustal thicknesses in the northwestern HKT have been sustained since ca. 40–25 Ma suggesting an orogenic steady‐state in which crustal thickening, crustal flow, and surface uplift have been balanced by erosion.

Due to hard observation condition of the western Tibet region, the slip behaviors of the Ms7.1 Karakoram Pass earthquake occurred in Hetian, Xinjiang on November 19, 1996 remains unclear. Using ERS 1/2 SAR data and InSAR technique, we obtain the co-seismic deformation of the earthquake. The north and south deformation areas show asymmetric pattern, with the maximum LOS displacement of the southern part approximately 24.6 cm, and the maximum LOS displacement in the northern part approximately − 18.5 cm. Nonlinear and linear inversion algorithms are used to determine the geometric parameters and slip distribution of the earthquake fault. Our results show that the co-seismic displacement is dominated by deformation fields are clearly visible sinistral strike-slip accompanied by a small amount of normal slip component. The co-seismic slip occurred between 0 and 18 km at depth. The maximum slip is ~ 81 cm, occurring at a depth of 8.5 ± 0.5 km at (35.36°N 78.03°E), indicating a shallow event with a moment magnitude of Mw 6.5. The seismogenic fault is a secondary fault in the Karakoram fault zone with strike 96°, dip 84°, and rake – 24°. This earthquake shows that the Karakoram fault zone undergoes a complex tectonic deformation process, with central part of the fault zone showing minor tensional deformation behaviors.

Glaciers in High Mountain Asia have experienced heterogeneous rates of loss since the 1970s. Yet, the associated changes in ice flow that lead to mass redistribution and modify the glacier sensitivity to climate are poorly constrained. Here we present observations of changes in ice flow for all glaciers in High Mountain Asia over the period 2000–2017, based on one million pairs of optical satellite images. Trend analysis reveals that in 9 of the 11 surveyed regions, glaciers show sustained slowdown concomitant with ice thinning. In contrast, the stable or thickening glaciers of the Karakoram and West Kunlun regions experience slightly accelerated glacier flow. Up to 94% of the variability in velocity change between regions can be explained by changes in gravitational driving stress, which in turn is largely controlled by changes in ice thickness. We conclude that, despite the complexities of individual glacier behaviour, decadal and regional changes in ice flow are largely insensitive to changes in conditions at the bed of the glacier and can be well estimated from ice thickness change and slope alone.

Glaciers distinct from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are shrinking rapidly, altering regional hydrology 1 , raising global sea level 2 and elevating natural hazards 3 . Yet, owing to the scarcity of constrained mass loss observations, glacier evolution during the satellite era is known only partially, as a geographic and temporal patchwork 4 , 5 . Here we reveal the accelerated, albeit contrasting, patterns of glacier mass loss during the early twenty-first century. Using largely untapped satellite archives, we chart surface elevation changes at a high spatiotemporal resolution over all of Earth’s glaciers. We extensively validate our estimates against independent, high-precision measurements and present a globally complete and consistent estimate of glacier mass change. We show that during 2000–2019, glaciers lost a mass of 267 ± 16 gigatonnes per year, equivalent to 21 ± 3 per cent of the observed sea-level rise 6 . We identify a mass loss acceleration of 48 ± 16 gigatonnes per year per decade, explaining 6 to 19 per cent of the observed acceleration of sea-level rise. Particularly, thinning rates of glaciers outside ice sheet peripheries doubled over the past two decades. Glaciers currently lose more mass, and at similar or larger acceleration rates, than the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets taken separately 7 – 9 . By uncovering the patterns of mass change in many regions, we find contrasting glacier fluctuations that agree with the decadal variability in precipitation and temperature. These include a North Atlantic anomaly of decelerated mass loss, a strongly accelerated loss from northwestern American glaciers, and the apparent end of the Karakoram anomaly of mass gain 10 . We anticipate our highly resolved estimates to advance the understanding of drivers that govern the distribution of glacier change, and to extend our capabilities of predicting these changes at all scales. Predictions robustly benchmarked against observations are critically needed to design adaptive policies for the local- and regional-scale management of water resources and cryospheric risks, as well as for the global-scale mitigation of sea-level rise. Analysis of satellite stereo imagery uncovers two decades of mass change for all of Earth’s glaciers, revealing accelerated glacier shrinkage and regionally contrasting changes consistent with decadal climate variability.

Field‐based studies are limited in Himalaya‐Karakoram (HK); therefore, remote sensing and glaciohydrological modeling provide alternative solutions to investigate runoff evolution under changing climate conditions. Due to limited in situ runoff data in HK, glaciohydrological models are often calibrated using high‐resolution remote sensing data. This study introduces the calibration of the glaciohydrological model Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY), at glacier catchment‐scale over 2000–2023 using satellite‐based Sentinel‐1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) wet snow maps, along with available geodetic mass balance estimates in the HK region. The selected calibrated model parameters are validated against in situ runoff data to test the robustness of satellite‐based calibration for Chhota Shigri Glacier (CSG), Dokriani Bamak Glacier (DBG), and Gangotri Glacier System (GGS) catchments in HK. The SPHY modeled and in situ catchment‐wide runoff estimates show good agreement. The Sentinel‐1 SAR‐derived wet snow percentage area shows strong spatial and temporal variability from 2015 to 2023. The mean annual runoff is 1.79 ± 0.15 m3s−1, 1.63 ± 0.09 m3s−1 and 39.40 ± 3.15 m3s−1 over 2000–2023 for CSG, DBG and GGS catchments, respectively. Maximum annual runoff occurred in 2021/2022, mainly due to heatwaves in early spring/summer 2022. Snowmelt runoff is highest in CSG (61%) and GGS (49%), while rainfall‐runoff dominates in DBG (42%). Satellite‐based glaciohydrological model calibration offers a unique opportunity to improve runoff estimates for glacierized catchments in data‐sparse regions. Applying present study to glacierized catchments lacking in situ runoff data will strengthen our past, present, and future glaciohydrological understanding of regions such as HK and Andes.

High Mountain Asia hosts the largest glacier concentration outside the polar regions. These glaciers are important contributors to streamflow in one of the most populated areas of the world. Past studies have used methods that can provide only regionally averaged glacier mass balances to assess the glacier contribution to rivers and sea level rise. Here we compute the mass balance for about 92% of the glacierized area of High Mountain Asia using time series of digital elevation models derived from satellite stereo-imagery. We calculate a total mass change of −16.3 ± 3.5 Gt yr −1 (−0.18 ± 0.04 m w.e. yr −1 ) between 2000 and 2016, which is less negative than most previous estimates. Region-wide mass balances vary from −4.0 ± 1.5 Gt yr −1 (−0.62 ± 0.23 m w.e. yr −1 ) in Nyainqentanglha to +1.4 ± 0.8 Gt yr −1  (+0.14 ± 0.08 m w.e. yr −1 ) in Kunlun, with large intra-regional variability of individual glacier mass balances (standard deviation within a region ∼0.20 m w.e. yr −1 ). Specifically, our results shed light on the Nyainqentanglha and Pamir glacier mass changes, for which contradictory estimates exist in the literature. They provide crucial information for the calibration of the models used for projecting glacier response to climatic change, as these models do not capture the pattern, magnitude and intra-regional variability of glacier changes at present. Publisher Correction (18 June 2018) Glacier mass balances in High Mountain Asia are uncertain. Satellite stereo-imagery allows a spatially resolved estimate for about 92% of the glacierized area and yields a region-wide average of about 16 Gt yr −1 for 2000 to 2016.