Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
6.6 Results
This research was carried out according to WGI guidelines (Mueller et al.
1977
),
and considers the most frequent cryosphere features existing in the Huasco upper
catchment, which are in this case: Bare ice glaciers, debris covered glaciers and
Rock glaciers, representing a total of 152 glaciers identified, of which 111 were
bare ice glaciers, 1 was identified as having a debris-covered terminus and so was
termed a debris-covered glacier and 40 were active rock glaciers.
From glacier inventory glaciations can be identified, according to their mor-
phological and spatial shape, in this specific case, the authors (Marín et al.
2008
;
Nicholson et al.
2009
) concluded that glaciation in upper Huasco is limited to small
mountain glaciers, glacieretes and active rock glaciers, completing a total amount of
152 features, whose distribution within the whole catchment is shown in Table
6.2
and Fig.
6.5
. An estimation of the water equivalent volume has been made consider-
ing former contributions; more than 87% of the mapped bare ice glaciers correspond
to ice bodies which area is less than 0.1 square kilometer. Another important result
Table 6.2
Glacier areas in terms of WGI rank sizes, separated by sub-catchments (Fig. 4) and by
glacier type
Rank 1
(0.01-0.1 km
2
)
Rank 2
(0.1-1 km
2
)
Rank 3
(1-10 km
2
)
Number Area (km
2
) Number Area (km
2
) Number Area (km
2
)
Bare ice glaciers
(Debris covered)
Laguna Grande
6
0.26
8
1.82
1
1.83
Valeriano
17
0.81
7
1.53
Chollay
12
0.42
2
0.46
1
1.50
Plata
Potrerillo
25
0.94
12 (1)
4.49 (0.19)
1
1.92
Carmen
17
0.58
1
0.10
Socarrón
1
0.03
All glaciers
78
3.03
30 (31)
8.40
3
5.24
Rock glaciers
Laguna Grande
1
0.04
4
1.25
Valeriano
5
0.29
3
0.96
Chollay
9
0.35
9
2.42
Plata
1
0.19
Potrerillo
5
0.24
2
0.28
Carmen
1
0.26
Socarrón
All rock glaciers
20
0.93
20
5.38
Source: Nicholson et al. 2009
Note: There are no glaciers that apply Rank 4 which is greater than 10 km
2
