ASTANA – The Tuyuk-Su Glacier in the Northern Tien Shan has lost ten meters of thickness over the past 12 years, according to a recent survey by the UNESCO Central Asian Glaciology Center, reported Khabar news agency on May 12.
Tuyuk-Su peak. Photo credit: skitouring.kz
In 2013, the glacier’s maximum thickness was 105 meters, but it now stands at just 95 meters – a loss roughly equivalent to the height of a three-story building. The measurements were taken using a specialized mobile ground-penetrating radar.
Located on the northern slopes of the Zailiyskiy Alatau mountain range, in the upper reaches of the Malaya Almatinka River, about 30 kilometers from Kazakhstan’s largest city, Tuyuk-Su is a relatively small glacier, just 3.5 kilometers long. Despite its modest size, it is considered a benchmark glacier, providing critical data on the impacts of global climate change. These measurements are vital for global climate models and are shared with the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) in Zurich, Switzerland.
Regular monitoring of Tuyuk-Su has been conducted since the late 1950s, making it one of the region’s most studied and well-documented glaciers. The last survey, carried out by Russian scientists from the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, took place over a decade ago.
Rapid ice loss and rising temperatures
“The Central Tuyuk-Su Glacier has shrunk from nearly three square kilometers to just 2.2 square kilometers. On average, the glacier’s terminus retreats by about 25 meters per year,” said Vasily Kapitsa, head of the High-Altitude Geocryology Laboratory.
“Glaciers are a sensitive indicator of climate change, and as global air temperatures rise, the pace of ice loss – both in terms of area and volume – continues to accelerate,” he added.
Scientists attribute the rapid reduction in glacier size to global warming, with a significant contribution from human activity, though natural climate cycles may also play a role.
“This all started after the end of the ‘Little Ice Age’ about 150 years ago. Since then, the trend has been consistent warming, with no significant cooling periods. Glaciers are shrinking in area, volume, and length, leading to a severe reduction in the region’s strategic reserves of fresh water,” said Nikolai Kasatkin, a research scientist at the UNESCO Central Asian Glaciology Center.
The first comprehensive inventory of glaciers on the northern slopes of the Zailiyskiy Alatau was compiled in the mid-20th century. Since then, these glaciers have lost 49% of their total volume, with each ice mass losing about 1% annually.
“If this rate of ice loss continues, the smaller glaciers we see today could disappear completely by the end of this century. These smaller glaciers are more vulnerable to melting than their larger counterparts,” said Kasatkin.
The findings underscore the urgent need for effective water resource management as the region faces the prospect of a diminishing supply of clean, fresh water.
