Resumo

SORUCO, Álvaro; VINCENT, Christian; FRANCOU, Bernard  e  RABATEL, Antoine. Comparison of methods to estimate the glacier mass balance of Zongo glacier, Bolivia (S 16°, W 68°). Geoacta [online]. 2014, vol.39, n.1, pp.154-165. ISSN 1852-7744.

The longest and most continuous series of measurements of mass balance in the Intertropical Zone correspond to Zongo glacier, Bolivia. Measurements, which were initiated in 1991, were taken using both the hydrological and glaciological methods. Comparison of these results show discrepancies in the mass balances obtained. In order to verify the mass balances derived from both methods, a new mass balance was performed using the photogrammetric method, results of which were compared with the existing glaciological and hydrological methods. This comparison showed that the hydrological and photogrammetric methods are equivalent. However, these results disagree with the glaciological method. This difference is attributed to a lack of measurements using the glaciological method in areas of difficult access on Zongo glacier. In these areas, the glaciological method simply used interpolation to estimate the specific net mass balance. The final results of this three-method comparison show that the Zongo glacier maintained very close to a steady state of mass balance between 1956 and 1963 and then gained significant mass between 1963 and 1975 (3.86 m eq. aqua). After 1975, mass balances have been almost negative. Moreover, this research extended the range of mass balance observations on Zongo glacier to cover the past 50 years (1956-2006).

Palavras-chave : Tropical Glaciers Mass Balance; Zongo Glacier.

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