geosciences Article Present Glaciers of Tavan Bogd Massif in the Altai Mountains, Central Asia, and Their Changes since the Little Ice Age Dmitry A. Ganyushkin 1,* , Kirill V. Chistyakov 1, Ilya V. Volkov 1, Dmitry V. Bantcev 1, Elena P. Kunaeva 1,2, Tatyana A. Andreeva 1, Anton V. Terekhov 1,3 and Demberel Otgonbayar 4 1 Institute of Earth Science, Saint-Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, Saint-Petersburg 199034, Russia;
[email protected] (K.V.C.);
[email protected] (I.V.V.);
[email protected] (D.V.B.);
[email protected] (E.P.K.);
[email protected] (T.A.A.);
[email protected] (A.V.T.) 2 Department of Natural Sciences and Geography, Pushkin Leningrad State University, 10 Peterburgskoe shosse, St Petersburg (Pushkin) 196605, Russia 3 Institute of Limnology RAS, Saint Petersburg, Sevastyanov St. 9, St Petersburg 196105, Russia 4 Institute of Natural Science and Technology, Khovd State University of Mongolia, Hovd 84000, Khovd, Mongolia Mongolian Republic;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] or
[email protected]; Tel.: +7-921-3314-598 Received: 17 August 2018; Accepted: 7 November 2018; Published: 12 November 2018 Abstract: The Tavan Bogd mountains (of which, the main peak, Khuiten Uul, reaches 4374 m a.s.l.) are situated in the central part of the Altai mountain system, in the territories of Russia, Mongolia and China. The massif is the largest glacierized area of Altai. The purposes of this study were to provide a full description of the scale and structure of the modern glacierized area of the Tavan Bogd massif, to reconstruct the glaciers of the Little Ice Age (LIA), to estimate the extent of the glaciers in 1968, and to determine the main glacial trends, and their causes, from the peak of the LIA.