scholarly journals Formation, evolution, and drainage of short-lived glacial lakes in permafrost environments of the northern Teskey Range, Central Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2245-2256
Author(s):  
Mirlan Daiyrov ◽  
Chiyuki Narama
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Eastern Himalaya ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
Glacial Lakes

Abstract. In the Teskey Range of the Tien Shan (Kyrgyz Republic), five outburst flood disasters from short-lived glacial lakes in 2006, 2008, 2013, 2014, and 2019 caused severe damages in the downstream part. Short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range grow rapidly and drain within a few months, due to closure and opening of an outlet ice tunnel in an ice-cored moraine complex at the glacier front. In addition to these factors, summer meltwater from the glacier can cause rapid growth. Outburst floods of this lake type are a major hazard in this region and differ from the moraine-dam failures common to the eastern Himalaya. To clarify how short-lived glacial lakes store and drain water over short periods, we use results from a field survey and satellite data to analyze the water level, area, volume, and discharge of Korumdu lake (2017–2019) as well as satellite data to monitor the appearance of 160 other short-lived lakes (2013–2018). Except in 2016, Korumdu lake appeared and drained within about 1 month during all the summers. Water level data recorded by a data logger and time-lapse camera images show that the lake appeared and expanded suddenly from July to August in 2017–2019. The timing of lake appearance indicates that the lake formed when an outlet ice tunnel (subsurface channel) drainage was blocked by depositions of an ice–debris mixture due to ice melting and not by freezing of stored water. For 2017, we used uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV)-derived digital surface models (DSMs) and water levels, finding that the lake's volume reached 234 000 m3 within 29 d, and then the water discharged for 17 d at a maximum rate of 0.66 m3/s. This discharge rate is more than 20 times smaller than those found earlier (2006–2014) for four short-lived lakes of tunnel type in this region. We argue that this large variation in discharge rates is due to variation in the dimensions of the outlet ice tunnels. For the 160 other short-lived glacial lakes, we found that 117 formed during the ice-melt period from July to September. This timing and our findings for Korumdu lake show that these 117 lakes likely formed primarily because deposition of an ice–debris mixture blocked the outlet tunnel, though increased glacial melt would also have contributed. In the Teskey Range, the appearance of short-lived glacial lakes on the moraine complexes at glacier fronts is inevitable in summer when the melting rate is high. Similar behavior of short-lived lakes may occur in other mountain regions of Central Asia, such as the Tien Shan and Pamir Mountains, wherever ice-cored moraine complexes exist within mountain permafrost zone. Moreover, increasing temperatures may increase both tunnel size and lake-basin size (lake volume), leading to increased hazard potential from such lakes in the future.

scholarly journals Water storage and drainage of short-lived lakes in the Teskey Range, Central Asia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirlan Daiyrov ◽  
Chiyuki Narama
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Dam Failure ◽  
Eastern Himalaya ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Outburst Flood ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Lake Type

Abstract. In the Teskey Range of the Tien Shan (Kyrgyz Republic), four outburst flood disasters from short-lived glacial lakes caused severe damages in the downstream part in 2006, 2008, 2013, and 2014. The short-lived lake grows rapidly and drain within a few months, due to closure and opening of an outlet ice-tunnel in moraine complex at glacier front. The outburst flood of this lake type is a major hazard in this region, it differs from many cases of moraine-dam failure in the eastern Himalaya. To clarify how short-lived lakes store and drain water for short period, we examined its recent changes in water level, area, volume, and discharge with a field survey and satellite data analysis. Korumdu lake appeared and drained within about one month during all summers during 2014–2019 except that in 2016. Water-level data recorded by a data logger and time-lapse camera images show that the lake appeared and expanded suddenly from July to August in 2017–2019. The timing indicates that the lake formed when an outlet ice-tunnel (subsurface channel) drain was blocked by deposition of debris and ice due to ice melting, not by freezing of stored water. Based on calculation of UAV DSMs and water level in 2017, the lake's water volume reached 234,000 m3 within 29 days, and then the water discharged for 17 days at a maximum rate of 0.66 m3/s. The small discharge indicates that the diameter of the outlet ice-tunnel was much smaller than those of four short-lived lakes in the same range that caused large drainages (12–27 m3/s) in 2006, 2008, 2013, and 2014. As the results, the dimensions of the outlet ice-tunnel of short-lived glacial lakes presently are related to the flooding scale. Recent warming temperatures may increase both the size of the tunnels and the basin volumes leading to greater hazard from such lakes in the future. In addition, we investigated the timing of appearance of 160 short-lived glacial lakes in this region using Landsat-7/8, Sentinel-2, and PlanetScope satellite images (2013–2018). We conclude that tunnel closure of 117 lakes was due to deposition of debris and ice during summer. The appearance of a short-lived glacial lake is inevitable in summer when the melting rate is high. The characteristics of this lake type might be shown in another Asian mountain permafrost regions.

First Holocene floating varve chronology in Central Asia from the Lake Chatyr Kol sediment record (Kyrgyz Republic)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Kalanke ◽  
Jens Mingram ◽  
Stefan Lauterbach ◽  
Ryskul Usubaliev ◽  
Achim Brauer
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Mountain Lake ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
Sediment Record ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Sediment Profile ◽  
Varve Chronology

<p>We present the first floating varve chronology in arid Central Asia of a finely laminated lake sediment record from the high-mountain Lake Chatyr Kol (Kyrgyz Republic). The record was retrieved from the deepest part (~20m) of the lake basin and comprises seasonal laminations (varves) from 11,619 ± 603 years BP to 360 ± 40 BP years. The identification of varves is based on seasonal deposition models established from continuous thin section analyses of the entire sediment profile. The varves comprise a complex pattern of six different micro-facies types throughout the Holocene. All varve types include a pronounced clastic-detrital sublayer, but the composition of their summer sublayers varies between organic, diatom, calcite, and aragonite sublayers. Based on replicate varve counts on overlapping petrographic thin sections an uncertainty of ± 5 % has been calculated for the varve chronology. The chronology is floating because in the uppermost part of the sediment profile varves have been only occasionally formed or preserved which prevented from continuous varve counting in this interval. Instead, the non-varved interval has been dated with <sup>210</sup>Pb and <sup>137</sup>Cs γ-spectrometry providing an age for anchoring the floating chronology to the absolute time scale. The resulting chronology is supported by two <sup>14</sup>C ages obtained from terrestrial plant macrofossils. In contrast, radiocarbon dating of aquatic materials showed significantly older ages and prove reservoir effects. Through comparison with the varve chronology changes in reservoir effects throughout the Holocene have been determined. We find a stepwise decline of reservoir ages from up to ~6150 years in the early Holocene to lowest reservoir ages of less than 1000 years in the late Holocene. In addition to their value as chronological tool, changes in varve thickness and seasonal sublayer composition are used as proxies for hydro-climatological reconstruction of Holocene climate evolution.</p><p>This is a contribution to the CAHOL project, part of the BMBF-funded and integrated project CAME II.</p>

scholarly journals An autonomous image based approach for detecting glacial lake outburst floods

2014 ◽  
Vol XL-5 ◽  
pp. 337-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Koschitzki ◽  
E. Schwalbe ◽  
H.-G. Maas
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Automatic Detection ◽  
Image Sequence ◽  
Image Sequences ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Water Line ◽  
Water Level Changes ◽  
Outburst Floods ◽  
Orientation Parameters

The potential danger caused by glacier margin lakes and the related risk of glacier lake outburst floods (GLOF) increases constantly due to glaciers retreating in many parts of the world. Reasons for this development are on the one hand the new formation and enlargement of glacier margin lakes due to melt water. On the other hand, retreating and thinning glacier tongues lead to a decrease of the back pressure against the dammed glacier lakes.<br><br> The paper describes the design of a photogrammetric GLOF monitoring system, based on monoscopic image sequence analysis for automatic detection of water level changes. The presented approach for measuring the water line in an image sequence is based on directional edge detection in LoG-filtered image data. After that, the water level is determined by a transformation of image measurements into object space based on orientation parameters of the camera and a geo-referenced lake basin model. The model can for instance be determined by photogrammetric methods after a GLOF; it may also be determined portion-wise by analysing shore lines at various water levels. Camera orientation parameters are determined by a local GPS-supported photogrammetric network. Comparing the determined water level changes with reference data provided by a water gauge, the precision is estimated in the order of one decimetre.<br><br> A major challenge is the automatic detection of the water line in image sequences under varying light and visibility conditions. The paper will also discuss promising approaches such as multispectral images as well as a statistical analysis of grey value changes over short image sequences to eliminate disturbing reflections on the rough water surface.

scholarly journals Large drainages from short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range, Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 983-995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiyuki Narama ◽  
Mirlan Daiyrov ◽  
Murataly Duishonakunov ◽  
Takeo Tadono ◽  
Hayato Sato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Summer ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Water Volume ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Supraglacial Lakes ◽  
Outflow Channel ◽  
Tien Shan Mountains

Abstract. Four large drainages from glacial lakes occurred during 2006–2014 in the western Teskey Range, Kyrgyzstan. These floods caused extensive damage, killing people and livestock as well as destroying property and crops. Using satellite data analysis and field surveys of this area, we find that the water volume that drained at Kashkasuu glacial lake in 2006 was 194 000  m3, at western Zyndan lake in 2008 was 437 000 m3, at Jeruy lake in 2013 was 182 000 m3, and at Karateke lake in 2014 was 123 000 m3. Due to their subsurface outlet, we refer to these short-lived glacial lakes as the “tunnel-type”, a type that drastically grows and drains over a few months. From spring to early summer, these lakes either appear, or in some cases, significantly expand from an existing lake (but non-stationary), and then drain during summer. Our field surveys show that the short-lived lakes form when an ice tunnel through a debris landform gets blocked. The blocking is caused either by the freezing of stored water inside the tunnel during winter or by the collapse of ice and debris around the ice tunnel. The draining then occurs through an opened ice tunnel during summer. The growth–drain cycle can repeat when the ice-tunnel closure behaves like that of typical supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glaciers. We argue here that the geomorphological characteristics under which such short-lived glacial lakes appear are (i) a debris landform containing ice (ice-cored moraine complex), (ii) a depression with water supply on a debris landform as a potential lake basin, and (iii) no visible surface outflow channel from the depression, indicating the existence of an ice tunnel. Applying these characteristics, we examine 60 depressions (> 0.01 km2) in the study region and identify here 53 of them that may become short-lived glacial lakes, with 34 of these having a potential drainage exceeding 10 m3 s−1 at peak discharge.

scholarly journals Large drainages from short-lived glacial lakes in the Teskey Range, Tien Shan Mountains, Central Asia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiyuki Narama ◽  
Mirlan Daiyrov ◽  
Murataly Duishonakunov ◽  
Takeo Tadono ◽  
Hayato Satoh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Channel ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Supraglacial Lakes ◽  
Flooding Events ◽  
Tien Shan Mountains

Abstract. During 2006–2014 in the western Teskey Range, Kyrgyzstan, four large drainages from glacial lakes have occurred. These flooding events caused extensive damage, killing people and livestock as well as destroying bridges, roads, homes, and crops. According to satellite data analysis and field surveys, the volume of water that drained at Kashkasuu glacial lake in 2006 was 198,000 m3, that at Jeruy lake in 2013 was 163,000 m3, and that at Karateke lake in 2014 was 169,000 m3. Due to their tunnel outlet, we refer here to these glacial lakes as a tunnel-type of short-lived glacial lakes that drastically grow and drain over several months. From spring to early summer, such a lake either appears, or in some cases, significantly expands from an existing lake, and then drains during summer. Our field surveys show that these short-lived lakes form when the ice tunnels inside a debris landform get blocked. The blocking is caused either by the freezing of stored water during winter or from collapse of the ice tunnel. The draining occurs through an open ice tunnel during summer. The growth–drain cycle can repeat when the ice-tunnel closure behaves like that on supraglacial lakes on debris-covered glacier. We argue here that the geomorphological conditions in which such a short-lived glacial lake appears are (i) existence of an ice-containing debris-landform (moraine complex), (ii) existence of lake-basin depressions having its water supply on a debris-landform, and (iii) no surface water channel from lake-basin depressions. Using these geomorphological conditions, we examined 60 lake-basin depressions (> 0.01 km2) in this region and identify here 56 of them that are potential locations for a short-lived glacial lake.

ENGINEERING METHODS FOR CALCULATING THE HIGHER WATER LEVELS OF THE UNEXPLORED TRANS-URAL LAKES

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
D. E. Klimenko ◽  
E. O. Kharlamova
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Warm Period ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Current Standard ◽  
Natural Lakes ◽  
Central Regions ◽  
Observation Series ◽  
Meteorological Observations

The article presents a method for calculating the water levels provided of the unexplored lakes of Trans-Urals, based on the analysis of materials of long-term observations of the water levels of the studied lakes, analysis of the morphometric characteristics of the surface of lakes and hydrographic characteristics of their catchments, as well as data of long-term meteorological observations. The relevance of the development of this methodology is due to the fact that the current standard SP 33-101-2003 “Determination of the main calculated hydrological characteristics” offers a method for calculating the water levels of unexplored lakes only for the territories of Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, the northern and central regions of the European territory of Russia; for the territory of the Urals, the parameters of the methodology are missing. The aim of the study is to develop a publicly available engineering method for calculating the highest water levels of unexplored waste lakes. The limiting amplitude of the fluctuation of the water level in natural lakes is determined by the excess of the input part of the water balance over the expenditure part for a group of years. This excess, which is an indicator of changes in the volume of water in the lake basin in engineering methods for calculating levels can be characterized by the ratio of the surface area of the lake and its catchment area. The synchronism of the perennial fluctuations of the water level in lakes with integral difference functions of the area's wetting coefficient (the ratio of precipitation over the warm period to the evaporation over the same period) and precipitation over the warm period at the nearest weather stations has been established. The dependence of the water levels of the lakes with a moisture ratio and the amount of precipitation allows one to reconstruct the series of the highest water levels of the lakes under conditions of a limited duration of the observation series. The considered technique does not contradict the requirements of standards and can be used when performing engineering and hydrometeorological surveys.

scholarly journals Construction of nearshore elevation model using open satellite data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.E. Hmelnov ◽  
A.S. Gachenko
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Water Level Changes ◽  
Subpixel Accuracy ◽  
Contour Lines ◽  
Elevation Model

For the tasks considering changes of water level it is required to have a combined (above water and underwater) elevation model. And the highest accuracy requirements are imposed on the parts of the model, which produce the contour lines in the range of the actual water level changes, while the information about the underwater elevation is usually very scarce and rough. In the article we consider the possibility to obtain this part of the elevation model using open high resolution (10 m/pixel) satellite images corresponding to different water levels. Here we describe the technique, which allows us to obtain the subpixel accuracy of the resulting contour lines. And we consider the problems in the quality of the satellite images that the contour lines reveal, and some ways to deal with the problems.

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