Science & Tech Deptt glacier study team completes expedition to East Rathong Glacier

GANGTOK, 12 Oct [IPR]: A glacier study team consisting of Assistant Scientific Officer, Narpati Sharma and 3 Project Scientists, RK Sharma, Pranay Pradhan and Dilliram Chettri of Sikkim State Council of Science and Technology, Sikkim, working for Glacier Dynamics of Sikkim, has successfully completed the expedition to East Rathong Glacier, West Sikkim.
The main objectives of the proposed study relates to the study of glacier velocity, snout monitoring, glacier melt water run-off of Rathong glacier.
East Rathong is a south facing, valley glacier (starts from the elevation of 4600 meters above mean sea level) and it is a 5.12 km long North-South flowing valley glacier with an average width of 1.50km.
During the expedition, study team fixed the 13 stakes each having 12 feet height over the East Rathong glaciers surface for monitoring the glacier velocity as well as accumulations and ablations (melting) of the glaciers. In such harsh environments, a scientific team dug 7-9 feet depth in the different glacier zones and the stakes were placed in such highly elevated low latitude glacier. The study team also recorded the GPS coordinates of all the stakes.
The team fixed the stakes at the maximum possible glacier surface, upto the elevation 4850 meters, separating each of the stakes by approximately 0.5 km distance, and beyond that point lies the glacier ice walls with a slope of nearly 80-100%. It was, therefore, highly inaccessible to attempt to.
In order to monitor the extreme and inaccessible glacier area, the information needs to be supplemented by the high resolution Remote sensing satellite data. The state Council of Science and Technology is equipped with the Remote Sensing and GIS Laboratory. Hence, laboratory work shall be undertaken for accessing the accumulation zones for the mass balance studies in East Rathong Glacier.
Further the State Council of Science and Technology shall establish a pre fabricated hut, install Automatic Weather Station (AWS) for long term stay of the research team for in depth study of the glacier dynamics. In the next season, the team proposes to undertake expedition for monitoring of the stake points to measure the changes at different location of accumulation and ablation areas.
Further the team also managed to record the water discharge of Rathong Chu at the snout of the East Rathong Glacier and also recorded the geographical coordinates of the glacier snout with the help of GPS.
The expedition has been undertaken as a part of the project entitled "Long term monitoring of the Glacier Dynamics of East Rathong Glacier" sanctioned by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India to the Sikkim State Council of Science and Technology. With the support of by Geological Survey of India, Lucknow, Project Scientist, Pranay Pradhan, was trained at Hamtah Glacier, Himalchal Pradesh in August 2012.
The team started their expedition on 27 September trekking on Himalayan belts of Kanchanjunga National Park from Yuksam and reached the East Rathong glacier on 30 September. The team concluded the first phase of ground survey and preliminary studies on 09 October.