The Surface Velocity Features At The Glacier No.72, Qingbingtan, Tuomuer Peak

Movement is the main characteristic making glacier ice differ from other ice in nature. Observation of surface flow velocity is a basic method to study the glacier movement. Tomor area is the region with the highest concentration of glaciers in Tianshan, and the glaciers are the main water resource for Aksu area. Because of the important role of glaciers in local water resource, there's urgent need to study the current state and future evolution of the glaciers and glacial runoff in this area. However, the study is hampered, because there's almost no observed glacier movement data in this area. To fill the blank, in August 2008, a large-scale scientific expedition was taken by Tianshan Glaciological Station, during which 21 stakes were set in the glacier for glacier velocity and mass balance observations. The Global Positioning System(GPS) was applied to measure the stakes'position. In July 2009 and August 2009, the measurements of the position of stakes were taken repeatedly. According to all the measured data, the characteristics of surface flow velocity of the glacier is obtained, showing that the maximum horizontal surface velocity was around 73.4 m/a, averaging at 47.1 m/a in tongue area. The spatial distribution of velocity was highly correlated with the geometry of glacier surface. There's obvious seasonality of surface velocity. In detail, the velocity in summer was significantly higher than that in non-melting season. In addition to the contribution of basal sliding, the summer velocity was also impacted by the ablation happened at the glacier bottom. Comparing to the corresponding features of Urumqi glacier No.1, the velocity of Qingbingtan Glacier No.72 was much higher, the mass transport by movement of it was more active, and the basal sliding of it was more significant. Generally, the velocity characteristics of Qingbingtan Glacier No.72 were similar with those of maritime glaciers.