Magelang, City in Java, Indonesia

The glaciers in Papua, Indonesia, are "the canaries in the coal mine" for other mountaintop glaciers around the world, said Lonnie Thompson, one of the senior authors of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."These will be the first to disappear; the others will certainly follow," said Thompson, senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University.The glaciers, atop a mountain near Puncak Jaya, on the western half of the island of New Guinea, have been melting for years.But that melt increased rapidly due in part to a strong 2015-2016 El Nino, a phenomenon that causes tropical ocean water and atmospheric temperatures to get warmer.El Nioos are natural phenomena, but their effects have been amplified by global warming.The study suggests that the glacier will disappear in the next 10 years, most likely during the next strong El Nino.Thompson said it is likely that other tropical glaciers, such as those on Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Quelccaya in Peru, will follow."I think the Papua, Indonesia, glaciers are the indicator of what's going to happen around the world," Thompson said.During the 2010 drilling expedition, the team installed a string of PVC pipe sections, connected by a rope, into the ice.When the stake was measured in November 2015, about five meters of rope had been uncovered, meaning that the glacier surface was melting at a rate of about one meter per year.A team went back in May 2016, and saw that an additional approximately 4.26 meters of rope had been uncovered - a rapid increase in melting over just six months."The glacier's melt rate is exponentially increasing," Thompson said. "It's similar to visiting a terminal cancer patient, and documenting the change in their body, but not being able to do anything about it".Globally, glacier melt is a major contributor to sea level rise, which, along with warming ocean waters, can lead to more frequent and more intense storms.Thompson said the mountaintop glaciers around the world contribute between a third and a half of the annual sea level rise in the Earth's oceans."They are much more vulnerable to the rising temperatures because they're small and they're warmer - they're closer to the melting threshold," he said."If you want to kill a glacier, just put water on it," Thompson added.The glacier's disappearance is a cultural loss too.The indigenous people who live around the mountain worship it. The ridges and the valleys are the arms and legs of their god, and the glacier is the head," he said.( With inputs from IANS )

MagelangFOLLOW

Magelang, Latest News

A research team has found five new species of birds and five more subspecies in Wallacea, in what can be considered a big leap in terms of finding new bird species in the past 20 years. ...

India has imposed restrictions on refined palm oil imports from Malaysia, although crude palm oil (CPO) imports from the country will continue. The move is being viewed as a major step to benefit the domestic industry in the country. ...

The death toll due to the floods and landslides in the Jakarta metropolitan area has increased to 43, Indonesian authorities said on Friday, adding that many areas in the capital remain inundated. ...

Once stricken with poverty, the people of Wazirganj area of Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh are now dealing in dinars, yens, rials and dollars. Their slums have turned into pucca houses and their children are receiving higher education like never bef ...

Fifteen years back, the people living in India's coastal region had a harrowing time. The world's deadliest tsunami struck the coastal areas on December 26, 2004, in 14 countries around the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 2,30,000 people. ...

After onion and garlic, prices of edible oil have registered a sharp rise due to costlier imports. ...

Former US President Barack Obama on Friday addressed young leaders at a plenary session here organized by his foundation. ...

The last remaining tropical glaciers between the Himalayas and the Andes will disappear in the next decade owing to climate change, a new study has found, stressing that the glacier's melt rate is similar to visiting a terminal cancer patient and doc ...