Recession of Yanamarey Glacier in Cordillera Blanca, Peru, during the 20th century

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Abstract
For Yanamarey Glacier in Cordillera Blanca, Peru, mostly situated between about 5000 and 4600 m, maps of the surface topography at a scale of 1: 5000 obtained by terrestrial triangulation for 1973, 1982 and 1988 and by aerial photogrammetry for 1948 and 1962 are compared with the glacier boundaries from a 1939 map and an undated maximum extent inferred from moraine morphology. The glacier length decreased from the maximum, 2800 m to 1600 m in 1948. and to 1250 m in 1988, with an accompanying decrease in area from 17 × 105 to 10 × 105 and thence to 8 × 105 m2. The shrinkage of ice volume was 35 × 106 m3 from the maximum to 1948. and 29 × 106 m3 from 1948 to 1988. compared to a total remaining ice volume of about 25 × 106 m3 in 1988. This quantitative assessment of mass-loss rates creates the observational basis for sensitivity studies of the climatic forcing.