With nicknames such as “the roof of the world,” “the Third Pole” and the “Asian water tower,” the Tibetan Plateau, which encompasses an area greater than Western Europe, is a place of great geological and cultural importance. It provides water for more than half of Asia, and scientists are concerned about the effects climate change might have on the glaciers that cover the plateau.
According to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Tibetan Plateau “… accommodates the largest tropical glaciological area in the world.” The highest plateau in the world, with an average elevation of over 16,000 feet, the Tibetan Plateau is surrounded by the highest peaks in the Himalayas, Karakoram and Pamir mountain ranges.
Glaciers and Water
The Tibetan Plateau is home to an enormous number of glaciers; on the side facing China alone, the area supports 37,000 glaciers. These glaciers feed Asia’s largest rivers, including the Ganges, the Mekong and the Yangtze. Civilizations continue to utilize the water provided by these rivers. National Geographic asserts that: “All told, some two billion people in more than a dozen countries -- nearly a third of the world's population -- depend on rivers fed by the snow and ice of the plateau region.”
The Tibetan Plateau is constructed from fragments of continents that piled on the geologic plate that formed Europe and Asia sometime during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. Because of the isolation, height and deep ice cores, the plateau has been significant in helping scientists reconstruct climate and other geological models of ancient Earth.
The Tibetan Plateau has already been affected dramatically by climate change. National Geographic states that the area “… is heating up twice as fast as the global average of 1.3 degree F over the past century …” This is causing many glaciers to lose mass, shedding ice around the eastern and southern edges. According to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, this has, and will continue to, decrease the amount of water available to areas that rely upon the plateau for freshwater.
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