RESOURCES AND DISTRIBUTION OF GLACIERS ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU

Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are calculated based on the Chinese glacier inventory.Statistics shows that that there are 36 793 existing glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau,with a total area of 49 873.44 km 2 and ice volume of 4561.3857km 3,corresponding to 79.4%,84.0% and 81.6% of the total glaciers in China respectively.Tibetan Plateau is the largest existing glaciation area in low mid latitude in the world.Glaciers are distributed mainly in Kunlun Mts.,Himalayas Mts.and karakorum Mts.,accounting for over half of the total glacier number and glacier volume on the Tibetan Plateau.The total glacier number and glacier volume in the other 8 mountains account for only less than half of the total glacier number and glacier volume on the Tibetan Plateau.Due to the influence of climate and topography,the glacier number and glacier volume is larger in the northern side of the mountains than that in the southern side,except the Nyainqenlanglha Mts.and Gangdisi Mts..There are few large valley glaciers,accounting for only 4.6% of the total glacier number on the plateau.However,the glacial area and ice volume account for 33.5% and 48.6% respectively of the total glaciers on the plateau.There are 21 large valley glaciers covering an are a of over 100km 2 each.The Yinsugaiti glacier in the northern side of the Karakorum Mts.is 42km in lenghth,with an area of 379.97km 2. The total ice volume of all the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau is 39 228×10 8 m 3 of water equivalent,which is about 10.8 times of the annual surface runoff on the plateau.The gigantic volume of fresh water reservoir on the Tibetan Plateau can provide 504×10 8 m 3 of water to river runoff.The spatial distribution of glacial melt water varies in different river basins.The runoff factor in the marine glacial area is much higher than that in the continental glacial area.