Abstract

Shrinkage of Tropical Glaciers in Perú

Student: Ashley McCracken
Faculty Mentor: Nathan Rowley (OWU Department of Geology-Geography)

Globally, atmospheric temperatures are rising at a steady rate, which have a significant impact on glaciated regions of the world. Tropical glaciers represent 1/6th of all the glaciers in the world and provide key water sources for many millions of inhabitants in places like: Indonesia, South America, and Africa. Increasing humidity due to anthropogenic climate change means there will be more rain and less snow, causing glaciers in the tropics to shrink – without the key inter-seasonal snow accumulation, many are doomed to disappear within the next 60 years. Advances in satellite imagery allow us to study the shrinking glaciers without having to be on site (e.g., Remote Sensing). Using ArcGIS software and satellite images from the last 20 years, we have mapped out estimated glacial areal change over time – affording us the opportunity to generate a first-attempt trend in glacier size. We use acquired satellite imagery from the Landsat missions at 10 year intervals: beginning with 1985. Our preliminary results reveals overall shrinkage of glaciated area over the past ~30 years.