The History of Global Climate Change

Earth has experienced many episodes of dramatic climate changes with different periods in earth history. There have been periods during which the entire planet has been covered in ice and at another time it has been scorchingly hot and dry. In this regards, earth has experienced at least three major periods of long- term frigid climate and ice ages interspersed with periods of warm climate. The last glacial period which current glaciers are the result of it, occurring during the last years of Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years age (Clayton, 1997). Indeed, glaciers present sensitive indicators of climate change and global warming and by estimating and monitoring the dynamic evolution of these ice masses, several aspect of climate change impact on environmental phenomena can be revealed.

Since the end of the last century, nearly global glaciers recession have been noticed (Barry, 2006). For example in Himalaya, several studies indicate receding glaciers in recent years and also these alpine glaciers are melting away remarkably quickly at the moment (Kodata et al, 2000; Fujita et al, 2001; Ren et al, 2006). Several researches show that during the past 25 years, these glaciers experienced a dramatic decline. These analyses reveals 22% glacier area loss in entire Alps, between 1985 and 1999, which is about seven times faster than for the 1985-1973 periods (Petri and Gareth, 2010). However, these result does not imply a synchronous behavior of all glacier around the world, because there can be local differences between glaciers and even in some glaciers advances. So, if the glaciers disappear, people distant from these mountains, in the lowlands and big cities of Asia and South American will suffer from ...

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... elevation of about 4250 m.

Although Iran is located in the arid and semi- arid climate, but this glaciated area is sustained by moisture- laden southerly wind originate from the Caspian Sea. These winds collide with the Northern slopes of the Tackt e Solaiman mountainous and produce an estimated average snowfall of about 452 cm/year. This orographic precipitation occurs during the 65 days in year. Also, a significant amount of precipitation falls during the October- December (Vaziri, 2003). The surface of Alamkouh is characterized by a system of ridges and depressions and oriented parallel to the overall flow direction. The most part of the Alamkouh surface is covered by debris. Typical origins of such debris accumulation include debris-laden snow avalanches, episodic rock avalanches and long-lasting rockfall activity, heavy rains or weathering processes.