The ExpAge database
The ExpAge database hosts a global compilation of published ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al data from glacial samples, with the aim of allowing easy access...
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High-mountain Asia Paleoglacier Inventory
Glaciated mountains Southeast view of the Kokshaal Range on the border between Kyrgyzstan and China @78,06°E 41,80°N. Photo: Adam Stjärnljus.
This site hosts a high-mountain Asia wide paleoglaciological reconstruction based on published cosmogenic nuclide (Be-10 and Al-26) exposure ages from former glaciers and ice cap margins and new glacial landform mapping.
Paleoglaciology is the study of ancient glaciers and a sub-discipline in physical geography—closely related to glaciology and geomorphology. Paleoglaciologists reconstructs the geometry and dynamics of former (paleo)glaciers and ice sheets from the spatial distribution of glacial sediment and landforms. This is possible because paleoglaciers leave a typical footprint behind.
The High-mountain Asia Paleoglacier Inventory—HAPI—is an important contribution to paleoglaciological and paleoclimate research across high-mountain Asia because it presents the first open-acess, high-resolution paleoglacier reconstruction for this part of the world.
Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the two fields of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain of human geography.
Geomorphology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform and terrain history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling. Geomorphologists work within disciplines such as physical geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology, climatology, and geotechnical engineering. This broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within the field.
PALEOGLACIOLOGY
A glacial footprint Set of terminal moraines formed by a piedmont glacier flowing out of the Muzart valley, China @80,71°E 42,12°N. The image was made from High Mountain Asia 8-meter DEMs Derived from Cross-track Optical Imagery V001 (https://doi.org/10.5067/0MCWJJH5ABYO).
PALEOGLACIOLOGY
Geomorphology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform and terrain history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling. Geomorphologists work within disciplines such as physical geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology, climatology, and geotechnical engineering. This broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within the field.
Glaciology is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, climatology, meteorology, hydrology, biology, and ecology. The impact of glaciers on people includes the fields of human geography and anthropology. The discoveries of water ice on the Moon, Mars, Europa and Pluto add an extraterrestrial component to the field, which is referred to as "astroglaciology".
RESEARCH - HAIL
Rugged topography Map of high-mountain Asia. The image was made from the SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Database v4.1 (Jarvis, A. et al. 2008, Hole-filled SRTM for the globe Version 4, available from the CGIAR-CSI SRTM 90m Database, http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org).
RESEARCH - HAIL
The cryosphere of high-mountain Asia is extremely sensitive to shifts in air temperature and precipitation, with its glaciers and ice caps responding to the present warming and to fluctuating atmospheric circulation systems. One such system, the Asian monsoon, is a seasonal change in wind direction, which allows moist air from the Indian and Pacific oceans to precipitate at high elevations feeding the cryosphere.
The High Asian Icey Landscapes during warm interstadials (HAIL) project—funded under the EXCELLENT SCIENCE Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions—untangles the complex interplay between different atmospheric drivers and documented glacier culminations during the past 60 000 years, focusing on an enigmatic behavior of glaciers during warm interstadial intervals.
HAPI was produced as part of HAILs first objective: to produce a comprehensive database of empirical paleoglacier reconstructions which can be used to constrain and interpret numerical glacier models.
RESEARCH - LEGACY
Glacial valley South view of the Ikh-Tugen headwaters in Mongolia @85,00°E 39,49°N. Photo: Adam Stjärnljus
RESEARCH - LEGACY
The HAIL project and the HAPI database build on an extensive legacy of paleoglaciological research performed across high-mountain Asia. In total over 120 publications have been published with accompanying paleoglacier reconstructions, glacial histories, and glacial landform maps. HAPI contains individual reference to this massive work.
Inspiration to create HAPI was first developed as part of the Tibet and Central Asia Paleoglaciology Projects (CAPP), funded by SIDA and the Swedish Research council (2004—2014). CAPP is an international network and ongoing effort of researchers from seven countries (USA, Sweden, Germany, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia) aiming to understand paleoglacier and paleoclimate evolution across high-mountain Asia.
HAPI - SUMMARY
HAPI - SUMMARY
The main data type of HAPI is paleoglacier flow lines stored as ESRI shapefiles. The flow lines are dynamically coupled to the ExpAge Database through attribute tables—allowing users to explore alternative geochonological interpretations and view both temporal and spatial uncertainties. Additionally, if the user wants to use their own re:calculations of cosmogenic nuclide data, the ExpAge raw data is made available but with individual samples linked to flow line ID:s. The entire dataset can be viewed in the webmap below or easily downloaded from the map interphase.
HAPI - PALEOGLACIER FLOW LINES
HAPI - PALEOGLACIER FLOW LINE
A flow line is a simple glacial metric visualising the trajectory of a hypothetical ice flow vector. The flow lines records how long the former glacier was (i.e. glacier lenght) at a specific point in time (constrained by ExpAage). It’s a first-order estimate of paleoglacier size. Determining a flow line is typically the first step in the process before deriving other paleoglacier metrics, such as aerial extent, vertical height and volume.
HAPI contains flow line estimates for all glacial deposits (boulders and sediment) and landforms that has been chronologically constrained using cosmogenic nuclide data, as well as for modern glaciers and maximum glacial limits occurring in their respective sequence of glacial events. A beta version of the dataset can be obtained by sending an e-mail to robin.blomdin@liu.se. The full dataset is under review and will be released by summer 2023. A full documentation on the creation of HAPI can be found here:
TEAM
TEAM
Robin
Blomdin
Is a senior lecturer in geography at Linköping University, Sweden. He is a physical geographer, a glacial geomorphologist and a paleoglaciologist who has worked with remote sensing and geochronological applications to solve ice age mysteries in Sweden, South America, high-mountain Asia, and Antarctica.
To provide feedback about the site and the paleoglacier flow line data or to request more information, please contact Robin Blomdin (robin.blomdin@liu.se).
FUNDING
FUNDNG
The creation of HAPI was supported by an Excellent Science - Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant (Grant agreement ID: 101024540) and coordinated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for the period January—September 2022. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
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