@Article{Kang2015,
author="Kang, S.
and Wang, F.
and Morgenstern, U.
and Zhang, Y.
and Grigholm, B.
and Kaspari, S.
and Schwikowski, M.
and Ren, J.
and Yao, T.
and Qin, D.
and Mayewski, P. A.",
title="Dramatic loss of glacier accumulation area on the Tibetan Plateau revealed by ice core tritium and mercury records",
journal="The Cryosphere",
year="2015",
volume="9",
number="3",
abstract="Two ice cores were retrieved from high elevations ({\~}5800 m a.s.l.)at Mt. Nyainq{\^e}ntanglha and Mt. Geladaindong in the southern andcentral Tibetan Plateau region. The combined tracer analysis of tritium(<sup>3</sup>H), <sup>210</sup>Pb and mercury, along with other chemical records,provided multiple lines of evidence supporting that the two coring sites hadnot received net ice accumulation since at least the 1950s and 1980s,respectively. These results implied an annual ice loss rate of more thanseveral hundred millimeter water equivalent over the past 30--60 years. Bothmass balance modeling at the sites and in situ data from the nearby glaciersconfirmed a continuously negative mass balance (or mass loss) in the regiondue to dramatic warming in recent decades. Along with a recent reporton Naimona{\&}apos;nyi Glacier in the Himalayas, the findings suggest that the lossof accumulation area of glacier is a possibility from the southern tocentral Tibetan Plateau at high elevations, probably up to about 5800 m a.s.l.This mass loss raises concerns over the rapid rate of glacier iceloss and associated changes in surface glacier runoff, water availability,and sea levels."
}