Himalayan Plateau Threatening Rapid Fall Down Due To Melting Permafrost: Study

Himalayan Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is threatening rapid fall down due to permafrost melting brought by global warming, as per a research published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. 

Permafrost is commonly referred to as permanently frozen soil. In recent decades, researchers have found that permafrost thawing on the Himalayan Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has occurred at twice the global average rate, which is now seriously jeopardizing the stability of the infrastructural development. 

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a 970,000 square mile area, stretching from Western China to Pakistan, that includes areas of Nepal, India, eastern Tajikistan and southern Kyrgyzstan. 

In the study, researchers predicted that the melting of the permafrost on the Himalayan plateau will result in an increased need for infrastructure repair and replacement, with 38 per cent of roads, 39 per cent of railways and power lines, and 21 per cent of buildings being threatened by permafrost thaw by 2050. 

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As per John S Kimball, a systems ecologist at the University of Montana, one primary worry is that permafrost has now become unpredictable and is thawing nearly everywhere in reaction to the rapidly warming climate, which would be rising at more than three times the global typical warming rate throughout high northern latitudes.

Mr Kimball explained a range of negative impacts of permafrost thaw. According to him, at local scales, permafrost melting can lead to an unstable or shifting ground that can damage building foundations, roads, pipelines and other infrastructure. It can also weaken ground to the extent of mass failure, resulting in landslides. These landslides may be serious, devastating houses and other infrastructure while also pouring enormous volumes of dirt and other debris into nearby streams, harming water quality. 

"Permafrost exposed by the initial landslide event will then thaw at an even greater rate, leading to even more and larger landslides and further soil loss. The landslides can be especially hazardous in mountain landscapes due to the greater terrain relief and steeper slopes," Mr Kimbal explained, as per Newsweek. 

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Further, as per the researchers, at a regional scale, permafrost thawing throughout the Arctic is leading to extensive dryness of lakes and other bodies of water. In the study, they noted that freshwater alpine lakes as well as glacier and permafrost thaw, especially in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, supply Asia's three longest rivers and serve as a key water supply for around 20% of the planet's population. Therefore, as glaciers and permafrost continue to melt, the lakes, rivers and other water bodies across the Plateau will begin drying out.

On a larger scale, thawing permafrost feeds back into global warming, increasing thaw in other parts of the planet. The positive response cycle of heating and permafrost melting may potentially involve wildfires, which are on the rise in Arctic permafrost soils, as per the study.