Cancún, Mexico -- Researchers taking a new look at the snowand ice covering Mount Everest and the national park thatsurrounds it are finding abundant evidence that the world's tallestpeak is shedding its frozen cloak. The scientists have also beenstudying temperature and precipitation trends in the area andfound that the Everest region has been warming while snowfallhas been declining since the early 1990s.

Members of the team conducting these studies will present theirfindings on May 14 at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancun,Mexico - a scientific conference organized and co-sponsored bythe American Geophysical Union.

Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percentin the last 50 years and the snowline has shifted upward by 180meters (590 feet), according to Sudeep Thakuri, who is leadingthe research as part of his PhD graduate studies at the Universityof Milan in Italy.

Glaciers smaller than one square kilometer aredisappearing the fastest and have experienced a 43 percentdecrease in surface area since the 1960s. Because the glaciers aremelting faster than they are replenished by ice and snow, they arerevealing rocks and debris that were previously hidden deepunder the ice. These debris-covered sections of the glaciers haveincreased by about 17 percent since the 1960s, according toThakuri. The ends of the glaciers have also retreated by anaverage of 400 meters since 1962, his team found.

The researchers suspect that the decline of snow and ice in theEverest region is from human-generated greenhouse gasesaltering global climate. However, they have not yet established afirm connection between the mountains' changes and climatechange, Thakuri said.

He and his team determined the extent of glacial change onEverest and the surrounding 1,148 square kilometer (713 squaremile) Sagarmatha National Park by compiling satellite imageryand topographic maps and reconstructing the glacial history.Their statistical analysis shows that the majority of the glaciers inthe national park are retreating at an increasing rate, Thakurisaid.

To evaluate the temperature and precipitation patterns in thearea, Thakuri and his colleagues have been analyzing hydro-meteorological data from the Nepal Climate Observatory stationsand Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. Theresearchers found that the Everest region has undergone a 0.6degree Celsius (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in temperatureand 100 millimeter (3.9 inches) decrease in precipitation duringthe pre-monsoon and winter months since 1992.

In subsequent research, Thakuri plans on exploring the climate-glacier relationship further with the aim of integrating theglaciological, hydrological and climatic data to understand thebehavior of the hydrological cycle and future water availability.

"The Himalayan glaciers and ice caps are considered a watertower for Asia since they store and supply water downstreamduring the dry season," said Thakuri. "Downstream populationsare dependent on the melt water for agriculture, drinking, andpower production."

Source: American Geophysical Union