Engiltschek glacier

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Engiltschek
The Northern Engiltschek with Khan Tengri

The Northern Engiltschek with Khan Tengri

location Kazakhstan / Kyrgyzstan / China border triangle
Mountains Tienschan
Type Valley glacier
length 60 km (south of Engiltschek)
surface 567 km² (southern Engiltschek)
Exposure west
Altitude range 7400  m  -  2920  m
Coordinates 42 ° 11 ′  N , 79 ° 49 ′  E Coordinates: 42 ° 11 ′  N , 79 ° 49 ′  E
Engiltschek Glacier (China)
Engiltschek glacier
drainage EngiltschekSarydschas
particularities Northern and Southern Engiltschek are independent glaciers.

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The Engiltschek Glacier ( Kyrgyz Эңилчек мөңгүсү ; Russian Иныльче́к Inyltschek ) is the name given to two large valley glaciers in the Central Asian Tienschan .

The Engiltschek Glacier is located in the border triangle between Kyrgyzstan , Kazakhstan and the Uyghur Autonomous Region Xinjiang in the People's Republic of China . Its borders meet at the summit of the 7,010  m high Khan Tengri , which forms the highest point in the Tengritoo (formerly Stalin chain ) between the two glaciers. The two Engiltschek glaciers at the north and south foot of the Tengritoos flow parallel to it from east to west. Their nutrient areas are sealed off in the east by the meridional chain , the main ridge of the Tienschan, which stretches from north to south.

The meltwater from the Engiltschek glacier does not reach the sea. They flow over the Engilchek river of the same name into the Sarydschas , which breaks through the main Tien Shan chain south to China. The water flows over Kumarik and Aksu into the Tarim basin . Finally, the Aksu unites with the Yarkant to form the Tarim , which is lost in the Tarim basin named after him, without drainage, in the vast expanses of the Taklamakan and Lop Nor deserts .

Northern Engiltschek

The northern Engiltschek lies in the glacier valley between the mountain ridges of the Tengritoos on the south and the Sarydschas chain on the north. It used to be believed to be a tributary of its southern counterpart. In fact, the two branches separated a long time ago - probably in the second half of the 19th century, i.e. at the end of the Little Ice Age . In the course of the general melting of the glaciers , the Northern Engiltschek has now retreated far into its upper valley. With a length of 25 kilometers and a width of up to 2 km, it is significantly smaller than the southern Engiltschek.

The uppermost basin of the Northern Engiltschek is completely on Kazakh territory. Coming from Khan Tengri, the state border with Kyrgyzstan runs in a straight line northwest over the glacier to Pik Semjonow , a 5816  m high mountain in the Saryjas chain.

Southern Engiltschek

Overview map of the Engiltschek area

The on the north side of Kakshaal Too and Engiltschekkette lying Southern Engiltschek is the largest glaciers of the Tien Shan. Its length is given (in different sources slightly different) as around 60 kilometers. The information on its area also fluctuates significantly, among others 488 km² and 567 km² are published. Values ​​over 800 km² should refer to the total area of ​​both glaciers. The southern Engiltschek is one of the world's largest glaciers outside the polar regions.

The rubble-covered ice stream at the meeting of the two Engiltschek valleys.

The main ice flow has its origin at the peaks of Pik Rapassow and Pik Voennyh Topografov , two over 6,800  m high mountains at the intersection of Kokshaaltoo and Meridianal´Nyj on Chinese territory. From here, the Engiltschek initially flows a little north-northwest before turning to the west in a sharp bend. From here on it is only slightly inclined. As a result, it maintains its direction of flow up to the glacier gate at the end of the tongue, which is still far away. The end of the tongue is at an altitude of about 2920  m north of the 5697  m high Pik Nansen . In the lower area, the surface of the glacier is increasingly covered with an upper moraine of rubble and rubble, which provides it with comparatively good protection against the consequences of direct sunlight.

On its orographically left side the Engiltschek flows from the Kokschaal-Tau to the south, the highest chain of the Tienschan, and its most important side glaciers. The largest of them is the Zoëzdocka glacier (also Swedotschka glacier , "Sternchen glacier"), which starts at 7400  m at the Dschengisch Tschokusu . Engiltschek and Zoëzdocka are separated from the Ak-Too chain. Far to the south between Ak-Too and Kokschaaltoo is the 5730  m high Vysokij Pass , over which there is a second, high connection between Engiltschek and Zoëzdocka. Other significant tributaries of the main ice flow are the Dikij , Proletarski-Turist , Komsomolez and Schokalski glaciers . In the widely ramified firn basin that stretches between Dschengisch Tschokusu and Khan Tengri, the two highest mountains of the Tienschan, the southern Engiltschek joins several other named and unnamed glaciers.

The line of equilibrium between the glacier's nutrient and consumption areas has been a long-term mean at 4476  m . This means that the entire, only slightly inclined ice stream flowing from east to west is located below the junction with the Zoëzdocka main tributary in the ablation area .

As one of the largest mountain glaciers on our planet, the southern Engiltschek is a regular subject of research for scientists from all over the world. The Gottfried Merzbacher research station was built not far from the former confluence of the two Engiltscheks .

Merzbacher lake

The characteristic curve of the glacier with Lake Merzbacher after its eruption.
The lake that fell dry after the eruption.

The different parts of the southern Engiltschek do not move uniformly. Below the confluence of the two Engiltschektäler valleys, a large, relatively immobile, old mass of ice prevents the southern ice flow from moving forward. Since the back pressure of the Nördlicher Engiltschek was absent after the retreat of the Northern Engiltschek, a large part of the southern glacier is now pushed into the northern valley under the influence of its inflowing ice masses (this is particularly evident in the arches that form the two light longitudinal strips between the dark upper moraines on the glacier surface describe). There he dams its runoff, including the meltwater of the northern Engiltschek, with a broad front to the (lower) Merzbacher Lake ( 42 ° 12 ′ 39 ″  N , 79 ° 51 ′ 7 ″  E ), into which he repeatedly large when calving Icebergs releases.

Lake Merzbacher, located at an altitude of around 3300  m , is known for its annual eruptions, during which it causes the Engiltschek River to swell. The ice reservoir empties very regularly in July or August of each year within a short time. Around 40 outbreaks have been documented, but only a few have been observed directly. In a few years the lake emptied twice, so in 1966 and 1980. The causes of the eruptions, in which the runoff of water and mud can reach 2000 cubic meters per second, have not yet been conclusively researched. The water may cause the glacier to float until it can drain. At the beginning of the 20th century, the time of the eruption was in September or October, significantly later than today. It is assumed that the total amount of meltwater is greater as a result of global warming . At the same time, the thickness of the southern Engiltschek decreases, which favors an earlier flooding. The decreasing water pressure against the glacier as the lake empties leads to an increase in its flow velocity.

The emptied lake fills mainly after the snowmelt in spring and summer, sometimes with astonishing speed. In times when there was a lot of meltwater, the water level rose by two meters a day. When fully filled, it reaches a depth of up to 100 meters. The damage caused by the eruptions of the Merzbacher Lake has so far been limited, as the river flows south into the scarcely populated Chinese Tarim Basin.

In addition to the lower one , a little higher in the valley of the Nördlicher Engiltschek there is also an upper Merzbacher lake , which only emerged in the course of the last century when the Nördliche Engiltschek increasingly withdrew into its upper basin. This proglacial body of water has lost a lot of area since the early 1990s. Today it is a lot smaller than the lower Merzbacher See.

Flow velocities

TerraSAR-X -based measurements of the flow velocity on the glacier surface resulted in values ​​that differed from year to year. In the ablation area above the confluence of the two Engiltschek valleys, the highest values ​​were recorded in June at up to 45 cm per day. The lowest speeds were measured here at just under 30 cm per day between autumn and late winter. In the area of ​​the bend where part of the glacier pushes up into the valley of the Northern Engiltschek to Lake Merzbacher, and immediately below the calving front into Lake Merzbacher, the highest speeds were recorded shortly before the lake erupted. At this point in July or August, the rising water level causes the glacier to float. In the days of the sea outbreak, the lower tongue moves forward fastest, up to 25 cm per day, when the draining water reduces the friction between the ice and the ground. During the rest of the year, values ​​around 10 cm per day are recorded here.

history

First explorations

Map sketch of the Tian-Schan by Merzbacher

The name Merzbacher See is reminiscent of the German geographer, Asian researcher and alpinist Gottfried Merzbacher and goes back to the first person to climb Khan Tengri , the Ukrainian mountaineer Michail Timofejewitsch Pogrebetzki . Merzbacher toured the Tienschan in 1902 and 1903 and, in search of Khan Tengri, advanced to the Engiltschek. His team was the first to climb a little over the (southern) glacier and get to Lake Merzbacher. Its pent-up water masses were an insurmountable obstacle for Merzbachers and some later expeditions on the way to the basin of the northern glacier. Merzbacher climbed 14 more kilometers up the southern Engiltschek. He came up to the foot of the Khan Tengri, which was then considered the highest Tienschan summit, and determined its height to be 7200  m . Merzbacher brought home the first photographic recordings from this remote corner. He suspected (erroneously) that there is a connection between the southern Engiltschek and Koikaf glaciers on the other side of the Khan Tengri. Merzbacher also created the first detailed map of the central Tienschan.

The Khan Tengri had been known for a long time in Merzbacher's time, as from a great distance from the north it appears as the dominant peak of the mountains. He was described by Pyotr Petrovich Semjonow , who received the honorable nickname "Tjan-Schanski", after he visited the area around Lake Issyk Kul in 1856/57 . Semjonow-Tjan-Schanski was able to prove that there are large mountain glaciers even in the arid deserts of Asia, which he and other scientists had previously thought impossible.

The naming of Khan Tengri , which towers between the two Engiltschek glaciers, goes back to an accident. Semjonow-Tjan-Schanski, who, from his point of view in the north, was the first European to see the shapely, approximately 7,000-meter-high pyramid in the center of the mountains, considered it to be the legendary “ruler of the sky”, Khan Tengri, who controls all the mountains around him seemed to tower above. For the Chinese, however, the Khan Tengri has always been the highest mountain in the border ridge of the Kokshaaltoo chain on the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert. The name Khan Tengri originally applied to the Dschengisch Tschokusu , 20 kilometers further south , which towers over the Khan Tengri by more than 400 meters. This highest peak of the Tien Shan was not visible from Semenov's point of view in the north of the mountains. And so the name was transferred to the second highest mountain in the mountains and has remained until today. The original, Kyrgyz name of Khan Tengri was Kan Too , which means Bloody Mountain .

In 1886, the Russian Academy of Sciences sent an expedition led by Ivan Ignatiev to central Tian Shan. Ignatiev and his companions were the first researchers who penetrated into the Engiltschek valley and there up to the glacier tongue. They estimated the length of the ice flow to be twelve kilometers and were therefore absolutely unaware that they were looking at one of the longest mountain glaciers in the world.

A topographical survey commissioned by the Turkestan military in 1912 produced little that was new. The team, which did not include any alpinists, was poorly equipped and only got to the ends of the glacier. However, it already determined the height of Khan Tengri very precisely at 22,940 feet ( 6992  m ). Although they did not enter the Engiltschek themselves, they doubted Merzbacher's report.

Scientific and alpine development

After that, it remained quiet around the glacier for a long time, until in 1929 alpinists made their first attempts to climb Khan Tengri. In the third year and after several aborted attempts, Mikhail Timofejewitsch Pogrebetzki , Franz Sauberer and Boris Tyurin succeeded in the first ascent of the second highest mountain in Tienschan in 1931 . They followed the Semjonow glacier from the southern Engiltschek to the West Col and climbed the west ridge to the summit from there.

In the wake of the alpinists there were always scientists on the Engiltschek whose main task was to research the topography of the area and to precisely measure and map the peaks. In 1932 W. Gusew and I. Ryschow and their companions managed to cross the Merzbacher See in a boat. They recognized that the Northern Engilchek, which they called Resnichenko , on the other side of the lake , does not flow into the main glacier.

Dschengisch Tschokusu (Pik Pobeda) from Zoëzdocka Glacier

From today's perspective, it seems surprising that by far the highest peak in the area, the 7439  m high Dschengisch Tschokusu (Russian Pik Pobeda or Pik Pobedy ), was only recognized as such in the mid-1940s. The massif, which extends for many kilometers in an east-west direction, closes the basin of the Zoëzdocka Lateral Glacier on the south side. When climbing Khan Tengri in 1936, mountaineers first noticed him when he stood out over a sea of ​​fog enveloping the lower elevations. He could have been noticed four years earlier when a team from the upper Engiltschek climbed the Vysokij pass, assuming they could see the Koikaf glacier from there. A year later, August Andreevich Letavet turned his attention to him. Letawet led an expedition to explore it on Engiltschek in 1938. The caravan camp was located below the glacier tongue. Despite adverse circumstances, L. Gutman, J. Sidorenko and J. Ivanov reached a summit on September 19, 1938, which they named the Komsomol Twenty Years of Spades . They thought they were at an altitude of "only" 6930  m . Five years later, in 1943, a topographical expedition measured a peak of Kokshaaltoo with the enormous height of 7439.3  m , which was given the name Pik Pobeda (summit of victory). It was later discovered that Pobeda Peak and Twenty Years of Peak Komsomol are one and the same mountain. At first it was unclear whether Gutman, Sidorenko and Ivanov reached the main summit or just another point in the long summit ridge when they ascended in 1938. However, comparisons of their photographs with those of the successful mountaineering group around Vitalii Abalakov from 1956 suggest that they were actually at the highest point of the massif.

Clarification of the border issue

The course of the state border in the border triangle between China, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan was not finally clarified until 1999. Since the 19th century, the main ridge of the Tienschan over the Meridianal'Nyj and the Kokschaaltoo was the state border between Russia or the Soviet Union and China . During the Sino-Soviet quarrel , China unsuccessfully insisted on the border line negotiated between Tsarist Russia and the Qing dynasty . After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the borders between China and its neighbors Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were renegotiated. On August 26, 1999, the three states signed an agreement that regulates the course of the border in the area of ​​the Engiltschek Glacier. Since then, the state border on Vostočnyj Šatër has branched off the meridional chain and follows the Tengri Tau to the summit of Khan Tengri, where all three states meet. From there, the border between Kyrgyzstan and China runs in a southerly direction just above today's base camp for the Khan Tengri ascent across the Engiltschek to Ak-Too . This ridge separates the upper reaches of the southern Engiltschek from the Zoëzdocka glacier. Today's state border reaches the Kokshaaltoo and thus its old course about halfway between the main and eastern summits (Vostočnaja Pobeda) of the Jengish Chokusu .

The Merzbacher station above the glacier

Merzbacher station

At the former confluence of the two Engiltschek glaciers, the Gottfried Merzbacher research station was built in 2009 as part of the Global Change Observatory Central Asia (GCO) on the Merzbacher Meadow, a little above the southern edge of the glacier. The facility is a joint project of the German Research Center for Geosciences Potsdam and the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences (ZAIAG) in Bishkek . The observatory, located at an altitude of 3420  m , consists of six containers anchored in the ground. Another was installed on the other side of the valley for a secondary station. The scientists who operate the station are dedicated to glaciological , hydrological , meteorological and seismic research.

Khan Tengri base camp on the southern Engiltschek

tourism

The two Engiltschek glaciers are primarily visited by alpinists who have set themselves one of the high peaks of the central Tienschan, above all the two seven-thousanders Dschengisch Tschokusu and Khan Tengri . Most of the time, these are organized trips offered by an alpine club or travel organization. The last few kilometers to the base camps on the glacier are often covered by helicopter. You can travel to the international airports of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek or the former Kazakh capital Almaty by plane.

For the Engiltschek glacier and the valley of the Engiltschek river, the German Alpine Association has issued two general maps on a scale of 1: 100,000 with detailed maps for Khan Tengri and Dschengisch Tschokusu.

Web links

Commons : Engiltschek Glacier  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes and individual references

  1. a b c d e f Julia Neelmeijer: Dynamics of the Inylchek Glacier (Kyrgyzstan) derived from Amplitude Tracking using TerraSAR-X Data. (PDF) (No longer available online.) January 16, 2012, p. 7 f. , formerly in the original ; accessed on February 24, 2013 (English, diploma thesis - Faculty of Forest, Geo and Hydro Sciences, Geosciences, Institute for Cartography, Technical University of Dresden ).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / kartographie.geo.tu-dresden.de  
  2. a b c d Alpine Club Map 0/15, Khan Tengri . Published in the context of the Alpine Club cartography by the German Alpine Club 2011 (1: 100,000).
  3. a b Wilfried Hagg, Christoph Mayer, Astrid Lambrecht, Achim Helm: Sub-debris Melt Rates on Southern Inylchek Glacier, Central Tian Shan. (PDF; 2.0 MB) In: Geografiska Annaler, Series A: Physical Geography, 90, 1, 55-63. Retrieved March 21, 2013 .
  4. a b DM Satulowski: On the glaciers and peaks of Central Asia (=  collection “People and Books” ). VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1953, p. 122 f .
  5. a b Tian Shan. Chair of General and Historical Geology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, accessed on February 24, 2013 .
  6. C. Mayer, A. Lambrecht, W. Hagg, A. Helm, K. Scharrer: Post-drainage Ice dam Response at Lake Merzbacher, Inylchek Glacier, Kyrgyzstan. (PDF; 677 kB) January 16, 2012, accessed on March 5, 2013 (English).
  7. Vladimir B. Aizen, Elena M. Aizen, Jeff Dozier, John M. Melack, David D. Sexton, Victor N. Nesterov: Glacial regime of the highest Tien Shan mountain, Pobeda-Khan Tengry massif. (PDF; 8.4 MB) In: Journal of Glaciology, V 43, No 14. 1997, p. 505 , accessed on March 9, 2013 (English).
  8. ^ A b c Edda Schlager: German geoscientists in Tien-Shan. The GFZ and its Global Change Observatory Central Asia. (No longer available online.) In: scinexx.de. Formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 24, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / go.de  
  9. ^ Edda Schlager: Kyrgyzstan: Glacier paradox - ice streams grow and shrink side by side. In: eddaschlager.com. Retrieved April 17, 2017 .
  10. a b c d Glab E. Glazarin: A century of investigations on outbursts of the ice-dammed lake Merzbacher (central Tien Shan). (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences. 2010, accessed February 24, 2013 .
  11. ^ Hermann Häusler, Diethard Leber, Alexander Kopecny: Holocene Fluctuation of the Inylchek Glacier. (PDF) Results from the Austrian 2011 expeditions to the Central Tien Shan. (No longer available online.) Department of Environmental Geosciences Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography & Astronomy, University of Vienna, August 17, 2012, p. 33 , formerly in the original ; accessed on March 10, 2013 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: dead link / lms.caiag.kg  
  12. Julia Neelmeijer: Dynamics of the Inylchek Glacier (Kyrgyzstan) derived from Amplitude Tracking using TerraSAR-X Data. (PDF) (No longer available online.) January 16, 2012, p. 44ff , formerly in the original ; accessed on February 24, 2013 (English, diploma thesis - Faculty of Forest, Geo and Hydro Sciences, Geosciences, Institute for Cartography, Technical University of Dresden ).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / kartographie.geo.tu-dresden.de  
  13. ^ Hans Dieter Sauer: The rediscovery of an explorer . In: Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Akademie Aktuell . No. 1 , 2007, p. 63–66 ( badw.de [PDF; accessed on February 24, 2013]).
  14. a b Gottfried Merzbacher: The Tian-Schan or the Himmelsgebirge . Sketch of a research trip carried out in 1902 and 1903 to the central Tian-Schan. In: Journal of the German and Austrian Alpine Club . 1906, p. 121 ff . ( anno.onb.ac.at [accessed on March 15, 2013]).
  15. ^ A b c Edward Peck: The Search for Khan Tengri. (PDF; 6.1 MB) In: Alpine Journal. 1996, accessed February 24, 2013 .
  16. a b c d Dimitri Botchkov: Mountaineering in the Tien Shan: An Historical Survey. (PDF; 5.0 MB) In: http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/ . Alpine Journal, 2000, accessed February 24, 2013 .
  17. DM Satulowski: On the glaciers and peaks of Central Asia (=  collection “People and Books” ). VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1953, p. 76, 117 .
  18. DM Satulowski: On the glaciers and peaks of Central Asia (=  collection “People and Books” ). VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1953, p. 66 ff .
  19. DM Satulowski: On the glaciers and peaks of Central Asia (=  collection “People and Books” ). VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1953, p. 134 ff .
  20. Jyotsna Bakshi: Russia-China Boundary Agreement: Relevance for India . IDSA
  21. See also Conclusion: Beyond the Border Issue. (PDF; 745 kB) Slavic Eurasian Studies (No. 3), 2009, accessed on March 4, 2013 (English).
  22. Gottfried Merzbacher Station. (PDF; 2.3 MB) In: GeoForschungsZeitung. October 2009, accessed February 24, 2013 .
  23. Alpine Club Map 0/14, Inychek . Published as part of the Alpine Club Cartography by the German Alpine Club 2008 (1: 100,000).