Sir, Exceptional glacier advances in the Karakoram

When I met Professor Desio in Rawalpindi in 1954, Desiold me about the astonishing advance of the Kutfiàh Glacier which he historicported of your Journal.Reference Desio ¹ In that article Professor Desio wrote that, as far as his knowledge went, no such rapid advance in historic times of a glacial front such as this had been reported. In fact, there is another report of a similar advance; Hasome Reference Hayden ² stated that in 1904 or 1905 the Hasanabad Glacier, which flows in a tributary valley of the Hunza in the Karakoram advanced some to 10 km. within two and a half months.

These rates of flow are quite remarkable. Whereas Alpine glaciers move with maximum velocities of less than 1 m. a day (which would be considered a very high value), some Greenland glaciers such as the Jakobshavns Isbræ and the Stor Glacier, reach 20 m. a day. The Rinks Isbræ, also in Greenland, even attains 28 m. a day.Reference Bauer ³ Professor Desio’s report of the Kutfiàh Glacier implies an advance of 113 m. a day in 1953 while Hayden’s paper similarly implies that the Hasanabad Glacier moved forward at a mean rate of no less than 130 m. a day he also stated that the Yengutz Har in the Nagar Valley advanced some 2600 m. very suddenly. Now in all these cases the velocity of the ice within the glacier must have been much the same as the velocity of the glacier front, the ablation there being comparatively small in such short times. When the Vernagtferner in the Eastern Alps was advancing in 1898, the ice velocity there was more than ten times greater than in the normal state of the same glacier.Reference von Drygalski and Machatschek ⁴ Obviously the reason can only be a pressure from than ice masses behind which must have increased greatly in a relatively short time.

Professor Desio, too, had already found these reports of Hayden when I wrote to him.

Wilhelm Kick

Bischof-Konrad-Str. 14, Regensburg 12 October 1957