Glacier area in China shrinks 26% over the past 60 years

A view of the Yangtze River's primary source, the Jangchu Diruk Glacier, in the Amdo section of the Three-River-Source National Park. （Photo by Palden Nyima/chinadaily.com.cn）

The glacier area in China has shrunk by about 26 percent over the past 60 years, with approximately 7,000 small glaciers completely disappearing, according to data from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Friday marked the first World Day for Glaciers, during which researchers released the dataset of China's third glacier inventory at the 3rd Chinese Conference of Cryospheric Science in Lingshui, Hainan province.

The data indicates that around 2020, the latest glacier area in China was approximately 46,000 square kilometers, with a total glacier count of around 69,000.

Compared to the first inventory of Chinese glaciers, the country's glacier area decreased by 4.8 percent per decade from the 1960s to 2020.

In comparison with the second Chinese glacier inventory, China's glacier area decreased by about 6 percent, which equals 5.2 percent per decade, from 2008 to 2020, indicating that China's glaciers have entered a rapid phase of retreat in recent years, according to the data.

The international glacier inventory efforts began in 1978, mainly focusing on the distribution and volume of mountainous glaciers worldwide. The Northwest Institute released the first and second glacier inventories of China in 2002 and 2014, respectively, and published research results on the changes in Chinese glaciers from the latter half of the 20th century to the early 21st century.

China's third glacier inventory began in 2023, with 2020 serving as the reference year for the data.