China has 46 377 glaciers with a total area of 59 425 km2, which accounts for 11%-14.5% of the total area of mountain glaciers in the world. As one of the largest mountain ranges in Central Asia and Northwest China, the Tianshan contains 15 935 glaciers with a total area of 15 416 km2. These glaciers are a vital source of water for more than 100 million people and for wildlife ecosystems in this vast arid and semi-arid land. Urumqi Glacier No. 1, the best monitored glacier in China, is located at the headwaters of the Urumqi River in eastern Tianshan and is within the core area of Central Asia.
Glaciers in the Tomor region of Tianshan Mountains preserve vital water resources. However, these glaciers suffer from strong mass losses in the recent years because of global warming. From 2008 to 2009, a large-scale scientific expedition has been carried out in this region. As an individual reference glacier, the tongue area of Qingbingtan glacier No. 72 was measured by the high precise Real Time Kinematic-Global Position System （RTK-GPS）. In this paper, changes of the tongue area of Qingbingtan glacier No.72 has been studied based on topographic map, remote sensing image and the survey during 2008-2009 field campaign. Results indicated that the ice surface-elevation of the tongue area changed - 0.22~0.14 m a-1 from 1964 to 2008. The estimated loss in ice volume was 0.0144-0.009 km3, which represented a ~20 % decrease from the 1964 volume and was equivalent to average annual mass balance of -0.204-0.12 m water equivalent for the tongue area during 1964-2oo8. Terminus retreated by 1852 m, approximately 41 m a-1, with the area reduction of 1.533 km2 （0.034 km2 a-0 from 1964 to 2009. Furthermore, the annual velocity reached to -70 m a-1. Comparing with the other monitored glaciers in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, Qingbingtan glacier No.72 experienced more intensive in shrinkage, which resulted from the combined effects of climate change and glacier dynamic, providing evidence of the response to climatic warming.
WANG PuyuLI ZhongqinLI HuilinWANG WenbinWANG Feiteng
