ANNUAL TEMPERATURE IMPACT ON MORAINE LAKE OUTBURSTS IN TIBET, CHINA.pdfVIP

Italian Journal of Engineering Geology and Environment - Book www.ijege.uniroma1.it ? 2011 Casa Editrice Università La Sapienza 957 DOI: 10.4408/IJEGE.2011-03.B-104 ANNUAL TEMPERATURE IMPACT ON MORAINE LAKE OUTBURSTS IN TIBET, CHINA JinGJinG LIU(*)(**)(***)(****), ZUNLAN CHENG(*)(**), CHuan TANG(***), yonG LI(*)(**) PenGCHenG SU(*)(**)(****) (*) Instit. of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences Ministry of Water Conservancy, Chengdu, 610041 (**) Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Process, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041 (***) State Key Lab of Geohazard Preventions, Chengdu, 610059 (****) Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039 change and changes in glaciers and glacier-lakes are considered as indicator of warming (liu sHaRma, 1988; dinG liu, 1992; zHanG, 1992; waldeR dRiedGeR, 1994; mool, 1995; Reynolds, 1995; wal- deR Costa, 1996; bisHoP et alii, 1998; ClaGue evans, 2000; sHaun JoHn, 2000; Rudoy, 2002; thus may be an important indicator for global climat- ic change (tHomPson et alii, 1989; li kanG, 2006; ames, 1998). In response to warming, glaciers in Ti- bet have been retreating since the early 20th century, and the retreats have been accelerating since the 1980s (zHanG yao, 1998; liu kanG, 1999; sHi liu, 2000; sHi et alii, 2000; Shi, 2001; He et alii, 2002a, 2002b; Pu yao, 2004; sHen, 2004; yao et alii, 2004). As a result, lakes dammed by moraines are getting like- ly to collapse, especially in Tibet. Dam failure usually brings about devastating flood or even debris flow. For example, in July, 2009, a flood was induced by glacier- lake outburst (GLOF) in the Zhemaico Lake and Cilaco Lake in Tibet, which killed 2 persons, destroyed 53 km highways, 20 bridges and 3 culverts. Changes in glaciers and glacier-lakes are considered as indicator of warming (liu sHaRma, 1988; dinG liu, 1992; zHanG, 1992; waldeR dRiedGeR, 1994; mool, 1995; Reynolds,