Study on the change of Keqikaer Glacier during the last 30 years, Mt. Tuomuer, Western China

Using radio echo sounder, ice thickness of Keqikaer Glacier tongue was measured in 1981 and 2004. Data obtained by comparing topographical maps, aerial and satellite photographs at different times, illustrates changes of the thickness and advance/retreat of Keqikaer Glacier. Keqikaer Glacier has been in intensive retreat since the 1990s and become thinner since the 1980s. Measured thickness of the ice tongue indicates reducing with a speed of 0.5–1.5 m a−1 since 1981. The shrinkage of the glacier terminus is less than 2% of the total length during the last 30 years; however, the retreat of terminus position and the thinning of the ice thickness provides significant information that these glaciers on the south slope of Mt. Tuomuer are in an intensively decreasing phase in recent time.