Mass changes of alpine glaciers at the eastern margin of the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields between 2000 and 2012

Abstract

Despite renewed efforts to better understand glacier change and recognize glacier change trends in the Andes, relatively large areas in the Andes of Argentina and Chile are still not investigated. In this study, we report on glacier elevation and mass changes in the outer region of the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields in the Southern Patagonian Andes. A newly-compiled Landsat ETM+ derived glacier inventory (consisting of 2253 glaciers and ~1314 ± 66 km2 of ice area) and differencing of the SRTM and SPOT5 DEMs were used to derive glacier-specific elevation changes over the 2000–12 period. The investigated glaciers showed a volume change of −0.71 ± 0.55 km3 a−1, yielding a surface lowering of 0.52 ± 0.35 m a−1 on average and an overall mass loss of 0.46 ± 0.37 m w.e. a−1. Highly variable individual glacier responses were observed and interestingly, they were less negative than previously reported for the neighboring Patagonian Icefields.