Context: Recently, Indian researchers of Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun have found a seasonal advancement in 220 surging or surge-type glaciers in the Karakoram Range of Ladakh.
Key Points

• The seasonal advancement in 220 surge-type glaciers in the Karakoram Range of Ladakh has been detected through detailed assessment of using satellite images and thermal data.
• The scientists focused on the Shispare and Muchuhar glaciers, former tributaries of the once larger Hasanabad Glacier situated in Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
• ‘Surging’ or ‘Surge-type’ glaciers are a certain type of glaciers that have shown advancement in volume and length over a period of time.
• The behaviour of these glaciers, which represent 40% of the total glaciated area of the Karakoram goes against the normal trend of considerable reduction in volume and length of most glaciers in the Himalaya in recent decades.
• The team inferred that surge during winter is more hydrological controlled due to staggered subglacial flow and low amount of meltwater.
• The surging terminates in summer due to channelized flow of meltwater and considerable heterogeneity in movement is also observed during summer and springtimes.
• Surge movement produced the highest recorded Karakoram glacier surface flow rate and resulted in a glacier frontal advance of around 1500 m.

About Glacial Surges

• Glacial surges are short-lived events where a glacier can advance substantially, moving at velocities up to 100 times faster than normal.
• Until recently, most glaciologists believed that a glacier’s physical characteristics, such as its thickness and shape, and the properties of the terrain it sits on determining whether it can surge.
• Now, it is proved to believe an external factor also plays a major role: water from precipitation and melting.
• Pooling on the surface, it can infiltrate the glacier through crevasses and reach its base, warming, lubricating, and, ultimately, releasing the ice.

Concerns

• The behaviour of these glaciers, which represent 40% of the total glaciated area of the Karakoram, goes against the normal trend.
• Surging of glaciers is potentially catastrophic as it can lead to the destruction of villages, roads and bridges.
• It can also advance across a river valley and form the ice-dammed lake and these lakes can form catastrophic outburst floods.
• Therefore, monitoring of glacier surges, ice-dammed lake formation, and drainage is of paramount importance.

Significance of this study

• Subglacial processes and conditions like amount of debris, distribution of stored water, and temperature gradient are crucial to understand the diversity of surge-types and surge-like behavioural spectrum.
• However, such information has been rare or unknown in the Karakoram, because ground-based observations are difficult to acquire.
• The study will help to understand the diversity of glacial behaviour and help make accurate assessments of individual glacier mass balances for disaster planning and management.

About The Karakoram Range

• It is also known as Krishnagiri which is situated in the northern most range of the Trans-Himalayan ranges. 
• It forms India's frontiers with Afghanistan and China and acts as watershed between India and Turkestan. 
• The borders of Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India all converge within the Karakoram system, giving this remote region great geopolitical significance.
• It extends eastwards from the Pamir for about 800 km. The average width of this range is 120-140 km. 
• It begins in the Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan) in the west and encompasses the majority of Gilgit-Baltistan (PoK) and extends into Ladakh (India) and the disputed Aksai Chin region controlled by China.
• The Karakorams are part of a complex of mountain ranges at the centre of Asia, including the Hindu Kush to the west, the Pamirs to the northwest, the Kunlun Mountains to the northeast, and the Himalayas to the southeast. 
• It is a range of lofty peaks and its elevation hardly ever falls below 5,500 mt. 
• It is the abode of some of the greatest Glaciers of the world outside the Polar Regions like the Siachen Glacier, Masherbroom and Gaisherbroom are also in Karakoram range.
• Some of the peaks are more than 8,000 mt above mean sea level. K2 is the second highest peak in the world and highest in the Indian Territory. 
• It has been named as Godwin Austen by the Britishers and Qogir by the China.