Himalayas have lost glacier mass equal to weight of 570 million elephants: Study

Global warming is surely affecting the only planet we have. We all know this. Words like climate change and global warming make up a sizeable portion of our online news consumption in daily life. But just how much is the extent of these phenomena becomes clear when a research actually quantifies the damage. A research conducted by researchers from UK's University of St Andrews, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graz University of Technology in Austria, and Carnegie Mellon University has been able to map loss of glacial mass in the Himalayas.

According to a report in Livemint, the researchers have found that Himalayas have lost glacial mass equal to weight of 570 million elephants. The research has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The researchers reported that glacial loss from the central Himalayas has been underestimated the most.

"Our estimates reduce uncertainties in total glacier mass loss, provide important data for glacio-hydrological models, and therefore also support the water resources management in this sensitive mountain region," researchers said in the paper.

Satellites can measure the surface of the lake, but are unable to track conversion of ice into water below the lake surface. Researchers say that this is reason behind the underestimation of glacial loss.

The glacial loss described in terms of weight of elephants has occurred in just two decades, reveals the study.