ISLAMABAD (APP): Chief Meteorologist, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Dr. Ghulam Rasul on Thursday said the alarming situation of glacier melting of Sanober and Booni Gole glaciers in Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can cause damage to lives and infrastructure.
Chief Meteorologist visited the glaciers during last week on the directives of Director General PMD, Arif Mehmood in response to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) request to investigate the potential danger of glaciers outburst.
Talking to APP, Dr. Ghulam Rasul said Sanober glacier is a hanging mountain glacier which has no connection with the valley base. It was linked with the peak of the mountain but now ice mass has eliminated from the middle of glacier.
The lower part is staying on the edge of the mountain facing North with a steep slope of about 60 degrees. It is a small glacier about 800m long and 50m wide.
A large cut (crevice) transverse has developed about 50m above the lower end (terminus) of the glacier and it has produced huge surge during last summer and moved loads of debris on its way to the human settlement and fruit orchards downstream, however, people have again settled on the glacier pathway, he said.
He said the terminus is about one kilometer above the ground. The length of steep slope (5m:100m) is about 3km up to the Chitral River free from any obstacle.
In his report on the present condition of glaciers, potential risk of their outburst and consequent damage, the Chief Met said that outburst is very likely even without rainfall as the transverse crevice will increase in width due to high summer temperatures.
A huge volume of ice/water carrying debris is likely to flow with large speed on a steep slope of 45 to 60 degrees. The settlement on glacier flow path is at high risk which should immediately be moved to a safer zone, he recommended.
About Booni Gole glacier, Ghulam Rasul said this glacier is named after the Booni village while stream, in local language, is called Gole.
The Booni glacier is also a mountain glacier but not hanging like Sanober glacier. It is less than 10km in length and about 700m wide. The terminus of the glacier is touching the ground and
discharging its melt water into the stream with average slope of 2.2m:100m.
Booni glacier is partially debris covered and its recent recession through 700-800m is clearly visible. Before the stream enters Chitral River, Booni village is located on its right bank curvature with a population of more than 15,000 human beings.
He said landslides and rockfalls are the common problem of District Chitral but it is the most serious on the both sides of Booni Gole and provide debris in the form of large boulders and amorphous stuff.
The soluble part makes the water turgid and not suitable for drinking intake. The boulders keep them positioned enroute posing devastating damage threat downstream.
At present, he said, there is no immediate threat of glacier outburst as it has been draining its melt water expected under prevailing thermal regime. However, the lower half of the glacier is melting at a much higher rate than the upper one. Under such conditions, formation of lakes underneath ice bulk cannot be ruled out.
The glacier melt water only has low potential threat of debris flow downstream. However, the rainfall amount more than 40 mm may trigger such disaster due to its huge momentum.
A narrow channel has been made within the wide river bed of Booni stream while heaps of debris have been gathered along the banks of central new channel which will increase the velocity of flow and the pressure of the flow will be increased at the curvature posing Booni village bank to risk.
He recommended that riverbed of the Booni Gole should be kept wide to slow down the speed of flow, however, a continuous meteorological and hydrological monitoring system should be installed at vulnerable points including Automatic Weather Stations and discharge measurements at source and downstream.
Chief Met said visiting this glacier on foot is a life risk, therefore, heli pick and drop of scientists and technicians should be ensured at such points.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011
Chief Meteorologist visited the glaciers during last week on the directives of Director General PMD, Arif Mehmood in response to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) request to investigate the potential danger of glaciers outburst.
Talking to APP, Dr. Ghulam Rasul said Sanober glacier is a hanging mountain glacier which has no connection with the valley base. It was linked with the peak of the mountain but now ice mass has eliminated from the middle of glacier.
The lower part is staying on the edge of the mountain facing North with a steep slope of about 60 degrees. It is a small glacier about 800m long and 50m wide.
A large cut (crevice) transverse has developed about 50m above the lower end (terminus) of the glacier and it has produced huge surge during last summer and moved loads of debris on its way to the human settlement and fruit orchards downstream, however, people have again settled on the glacier pathway, he said.
He said the terminus is about one kilometer above the ground. The length of steep slope (5m:100m) is about 3km up to the Chitral River free from any obstacle.
In his report on the present condition of glaciers, potential risk of their outburst and consequent damage, the Chief Met said that outburst is very likely even without rainfall as the transverse crevice will increase in width due to high summer temperatures.
A huge volume of ice/water carrying debris is likely to flow with large speed on a steep slope of 45 to 60 degrees. The settlement on glacier flow path is at high risk which should immediately be moved to a safer zone, he recommended.
About Booni Gole glacier, Ghulam Rasul said this glacier is named after the Booni village while stream, in local language, is called Gole.
The Booni glacier is also a mountain glacier but not hanging like Sanober glacier. It is less than 10km in length and about 700m wide. The terminus of the glacier is touching the ground and
discharging its melt water into the stream with average slope of 2.2m:100m.
Booni glacier is partially debris covered and its recent recession through 700-800m is clearly visible. Before the stream enters Chitral River, Booni village is located on its right bank curvature with a population of more than 15,000 human beings.
He said landslides and rockfalls are the common problem of District Chitral but it is the most serious on the both sides of Booni Gole and provide debris in the form of large boulders and amorphous stuff.
The soluble part makes the water turgid and not suitable for drinking intake. The boulders keep them positioned enroute posing devastating damage threat downstream.
At present, he said, there is no immediate threat of glacier outburst as it has been draining its melt water expected under prevailing thermal regime. However, the lower half of the glacier is melting at a much higher rate than the upper one. Under such conditions, formation of lakes underneath ice bulk cannot be ruled out.
The glacier melt water only has low potential threat of debris flow downstream. However, the rainfall amount more than 40 mm may trigger such disaster due to its huge momentum.
A narrow channel has been made within the wide river bed of Booni stream while heaps of debris have been gathered along the banks of central new channel which will increase the velocity of flow and the pressure of the flow will be increased at the curvature posing Booni village bank to risk.
He recommended that riverbed of the Booni Gole should be kept wide to slow down the speed of flow, however, a continuous meteorological and hydrological monitoring system should be installed at vulnerable points including Automatic Weather Stations and discharge measurements at source and downstream.
Chief Met said visiting this glacier on foot is a life risk, therefore, heli pick and drop of scientists and technicians should be ensured at such points.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011