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Natural Dams and Outburst Floods of the Karakoram Himalaya

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Natural Dams and Outburst Floods of the Karakoram Himalaya Hydrological Aspects of Alpine and High Mountain Areas (Proceedings of the Exeter Symposium, Juiy 1982). IAHS Publ. no. 138. Natural dams and outburst floods of the Karakoram Himalaya KENNETH HEWITT Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3C5 ABSTRACT Glacier dams and outburst floods ("jokulhlaups") have been reported in many glacierized mountain regions, and may create hazards for human populations. Specially large and dangerous examples occur where the rivers of extensive ice-free zones are blocked. This hydrological anomaly has been rare in modern times except for two areas: the southern Alaska-Yukon ranges and Karakoram Himalaya. In the Karakoram some 30 glaciers may form substantial dams on the Upper Indus and Yarkand river systems. Many more interfere with the flow of rivers in a potentially dangerous way. There is evidence of some 35 disastrous jokulhlaups since 1826. Rarer landslide dams have resulted in the largest dam-burst floods. The paper provides a record of known dams and related events, and identifies the glaciers involved. It indicates the role of the regional environment in the widespread potential for these glacier dams and catastrophic outbursts. Some data are given on the dimensions of past dams and the nature and impact of the flood waves. No dams were reported from the mid 1930's until 1978 when satellite imagery showed a 6 km glacier lake on the Upper Yarkand. The absence of dams in recent decades relates to a general glacier recession here. Renewed activity creates serious problems for water resource development and settlement growth that occurred in the recent, unusually favourable period. INTRODUCTION Bodies of water ponded by glaciers are common in most glaciated regions. They can range in size from small ice-marginal pools to the enormous glacier lakes dammed by certain Pleistocene ice sheets. A particularly large and dangerous dam occurs where a glacier enters and blocks a major river valley of which it is tributary. Evidently, however, these are an anomaly within the usual climatic hydrological and geomorphic progression downstream in a drainage basin. Rare and isolated cases have been reported from the southern Andes, the Canadian Arctic islands, the Caucasus, some Central Asian ranges and also the European Alps and Norway during the Little Ice Age. In one region of the world, however, the Karakoram Himalaya and neighbouring ranges, there has been a substantial number of these main valley glacier lakes in modern times. Outbursts from a series of dams on the Upper Shyok between 1926 and 1932 brought devastating floods along more than 1200 km of the Indus. Some even larger 259 260 Kenneth Hewitt landslide dams and outburst floods occurred here in the nineteenth century and an exceptional concentration of surging glaciers has been found (Hewitt, 1969, 1975, unpublished). Some of the latter have formed main valley ice dams. The only comparable region in terms of these hazardous hydrological phenomena occurs in the southern Alaska-Yukon ranges. The Karakoram is far less known than the latter. This paper provides a summary of what is known of ice dam occurrence, the glaciers involved, and the impact of outburst floods. THE RECORD OF GLACIER DAMS AND OUTBURST FLOODS There is an extensive if scattered record of natural damming in the Karakoram region, sufficient to indicate the scope of the problem, and the particular drainage basins where damming recurs (Table 1). Thirty-five destructive outburst floods have been recorded in the past two hundred years. Thirty glaciers are known to have advanced across major headwater streams of the Indus and Yarkand rivers. There is unambiguous evidence of large reservoirs ponded by eighteen of these glaciers. Meanwhile, a further thirty-seven glaciers interfere with the flow of trunk streams in a potentially dangerous way. There is geological evidence of other dams and numerous reports of glaciers across main river channels which they were not actually damming. These too may be potentially dangerous. Geographically, glacier dams in main river valleys have occurred from the far western to the far eastern parts of the Karakoram range, and in the Lesser Hindu Kush, Nanga Parbat, Haramosh, Hindu Raj, Aghil, and far northeast Hindu Kush ranges (Fig.l). These are areas where we approach maximal local relief for the Earth's land FIG.l Distribution of glacier dams and related events in the Upper Indus Basin (after Hewitt, unpublished). TABLE 1 Historical summary of glacier dams and outburst floods for the Karakoram Himalaya and environs. (For details and sources see Hewitt, 1968 and unpublished.) Year Ice dam Outburst Major Glacier/River System flood disaster 1533 X X X Upper Shyok river 1780 X X Upper Shy ok river 1818- •1840s X (Series of barriers) Upper Shyok river 1826 X X X Upper Shyok river 1833 X X Upper Shyok river 1833 X X X Yashkuk Yaz Glacier 1835 X X Sultan Chhussku Glacier (1841 Massive landslide dam and outburst, Indus river) 1842 X X X Upper Shyok river 1844 X X X Ishkoman river 1848 X Aktash Glacier 1848 X Kichik Khumdan Glacier 18501 '?; X X X Chungphar Glacier 1850 X Aktash Glacier 1852- •1858 X (Series of barriers) Kichik Khumdan Glacier 1855 X Upper Shyok ri ver 1855 X X Upper Shyok river (185S '.-1862 Massive landslide dam and outburst, Hunza river) 1864 X Kichik Khumdan Glacier (?) 1865 X X Ishkoman ri ver 1869- •1872 X Kichik Khumdan 1870 X Karambar Glacier 1873 x(?) Batura Glacier 1879 X X Upper Shyok river 1882 X X X Upper Shyok river 1884 X X X Shimshall river 1889 X Upper Shyok river 1891- •1892 X Ishkoman ri ver 1893 X X Shimshall river 1893 X X X Ishkoman ri ver 1899 x(?) Upper Shyok river 1901 X X X Upper Shyok river (?) 1902- •1911 X Kichik Khumdan Glacier 1903 X X Kichik Khumdan Glacier 1904- •1905 X Ishkoman river 1905- •1906 X Khurdopin Glacier 1905 X Kichik Khumdan Glacier 1905 X X X Karambar Glacier 1905 X X X Khurdopin Glacier 1906 X X X Khurdopin Glacier 1907 X X Khurdopin Glacier 1909 X Whirgut Glacier (1911 Landsli de dam near Gilgit) 1916 X Ishkoman ri ver 1924- 1933 X Chong Khumdan Glacier 1925- 1927 X Khurdopin Glacier 1926 X X X Chong Khumdan Glacier 1927 X X X Kaz Yaz Glacier 1927 X X Khurdopin Glacier 1928 X X Kilik river (Hunza) 1929 X X X Chong Khumdan Glacier 1929- 1930 X Ishkoman river 1930 X Kyagar Glacier 1932 X X Chong Khumdan Glacier 1933 X X Chong Khumdan Glacier 1939 X Chong Khumdan Glacier 1953 X Kutiah Glacier 1977 (Hunza landslide <dam related to glacier surge) 1978 X Kyagar Glacier 1979 X X Kyagar Glacier 262 Kenneth Hewitt surface. Altitudinal differences of some 3000-5000 m over distances of 10-30 km from main river valleys are reflected in the fall of the damming glaciers (see Table 5). The main rivers follow extremely elongated, trellis drainage patterns that divide up the high ranges. The latter are heavily glacierized. The Karakoram and other high ranges have 60-70% permanent snow and ice covers. Snowfall of the order of 1000-1500 mm water-equivalent is indicated here. Yet valley floors, lesser ranges and the eastern plateau remnants are generally arid or semi-arid. In addition, strong aspectual differences of climate greatly influence the glacier cover and glacier behaviour. The data indicate that main valley dams may have been more common in association with Little Ice Age advances, but were not confined to that time. Tradition and ancient documents from as early as the fifth century A.D. refer to outbursts of glacial waters as typical for the Indus and rivers draining north to Takla Makan. However there is a conspicuous gap in the record from the 1930's to the present. It seems to be associated with general glacier recession in the region. Nevertheless, in 1978 a large dam formed on the north slope of the Karakoram Himalaya (Fig. 2). It was -35-45' CONTOURS-land MORAINE iC6 ACCUMULATION FIRN LINE ZONE FIG.2 The Kyagar Dam and Glacier in July 1978. identified using Landsat imagery in a continuing programme to monitor glacial and other natural hazards in the region. By the end of the 2 In subsequent yearsfirst , summertwo larg, ae lakflooe do fwave somse comin6 km g hadowd ndeveloped the Yarkan. d river from its Karakoram headwaters have been attributed to the bursting of the lake (personal communication from Dr Shi Yafeng). The same glacier, the Outburst floods of the Karakoram 263 Kyagar, dammed the Shaksgam river fifty years ago, when damming recurred over several years. THE GLACIER DAMS It has been possible to determine the order of magnitude of the volumes of water in three main valley reservoirs; the recent Kyagar dam, the Chong Khumdan dam of 1929, and, from field features, the Biafo Gyang dam which burst some time in the eighteenth century (Tables 2, 3 and 4). Morphological information is also given for the glaciers involved. In addition we have information from the one large tributary valley lake that has been a serious hazard in recent times, that where the Khurdopin Glacier dams the Virjerab valley in Upper Shimshall. Before its outburst in 1907,the glacier that formed there was about 3.5 km long, 1.5 km in average width and some 88 m deep at the dam. TABLE 2 Kyagar Dam and Glacier Kyagar Dam (18 July 1978) Glacier Length of lake 6 .5 km Orientation NNW Average width 1.0 km Max. length 21.6 km Slope of valley Width, lower floor approximately 1 in 50 ablation zone 2.5 km Est. depth at dam 120 m Terminus altitude 4 700 m a.m.
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