Heatwave Leaves Less Impact on Melting Shishper Glacier

News Desk

Islamabad: The Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority (GBDMA) on Thursday confirmed that there was less impact of the prevailing heatwave on the melting Shishper Glacier, falling in the vicinity of Hassanabad village of Hunza.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), in its situation report sent to the GBDMA, informed that if the prevailing weather conditions and temperature prevailed then the glacial lake water, which is very small at present, would drain out by the end of April or first week of May.

An official at GBDMA said if the lake size swelled then the glacial lake formed at the Shishper Glacier might burst due to the expected rise in temperatures in the valley.

He said keeping in view the prevailing situation and expected glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) the GBDMA teams were well prepared and trained to carry out community sensitization, local populations relocation, and stockpiling ten days ahead of the Met Offices threat alert of GLOF.

Sher Mohammad of International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said the Shishper Glacier started surging in 2018 that has breached thrice from 2019 to 2020.

He said continuous monitoring was a key to developing well-informed preparedness plans and contingency measures to avoid massive life and property loss during the insurmountable natural hazard.

The area of the lake is 0.22 sq km (greater than 0.22 square kilometers) as of 31st March, it previously outburst when the lake area reached 0.34 sq km”, Sher informed.

The Shishper Glacier, since the beginning of its surge in 2018, was infrequent and unmatched in its melting behavior which made it more dangerous.

The Glacier had a history of being the ice-damned lake which leads to its breaches on three different occasions, whereas the glacial lake burs after reaching its maximum size of 0.34 sq. km. During the breaches, the GLOF led to partial damage to Karakoram Highway and inflicted minor infrastructure damages downstream.