文摘
Quantifying the water loss of Himalayan glaciers due to global warming from direct measurement is difficult, as some glaciers are advancing or stable in spite of an overall retreat. We use a novel approach to provide an alternative estimate of the amount of Himalayan ice melt. Because a major part of this melted ice debouches into the Bay of Bengal through the Ganga鈥揃rahmaputra basin, it causes significant variations in the oxygen isotopic composition (未18O) and salinity (S) of the sea surface water and their mutual linear relationship. We document the temporal change in the 未18O鈥?i>S relation for the bay at three different times during the period from 1994 to 2006, and using a model, we infer that 2.4 脳 1011 m3 water was lost by melting from the Ganga鈥揃rahmaputra basin during this period.