Glacial Lakes of Mongolia

Michael Walther, Ulrich Kamp (), Nyam-Osor Nandintsetseg, Avirmed Dashtseren and Khurelbaatar Temujin
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Michael Walther: UNESCO Chair of Environmental Sciences in Eastern Central Asia, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 361, Ulaanbaatar 14192, Mongolia
Ulrich Kamp: Earth and Environmental Sciences Discipline, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI 48128, USA
Nyam-Osor Nandintsetseg: Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 361, Ulaanbaatar 14192, Mongolia
Avirmed Dashtseren: Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 361, Ulaanbaatar 14192, Mongolia
Khurelbaatar Temujin: Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 361, Ulaanbaatar 14192, Mongolia

Geographies, 2024, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: The over 2200 lakes of Mongolia are generally poorly studied, particularly the glacial lakes. This overview study presents a classification of the glacial lakes based on tectonic-geological and geomorphological dynamics. Selected representative lakes are described using results from fieldwork and satellite image analysis, including bathymetry, paleoshorelines, and recent lake-level fluctuations between 1987 and 2020. Generally, lake levels dropped from the early Holocene until recently, with the onset of the climate change-driven glacier recession that has resulted in lake-level rises and area expansion in almost all moraine-dammed, tongue-basin, and ice-contact lakes. In contrast, endorheic lakes have mainly been shrinking for the past forty years because of an increase in air temperature and evaporation rates and the effects of an intensifying water use within the catchment for irrigation, mining, and hydroelectric energy production in the form of dams. The creation of a lake monitoring system based on an in-depth inventory is recommended.

Keywords: glacial lake; ice-contact lake; moraine-dammed lake; Mongolia; Zungenbecken lake (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q15 Q5 Q53 Q54 Q56 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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