Siachen Glacier

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Siachen Glacier
The Siachen from the ISS

The Siachen from the ISS from

location Ladakh ( India )
Mountains Siachen Muztagh , Saltoro Mountains ( Karakoram )
Type Valley glacier
length 74 km
Exposure South southeast
Altitude range 7700  m  -  3600  m
width ⌀ 2.5 km
Coordinates 35 ° 28 '  N , 77 ° 3'  E Coordinates: 35 ° 28 '  N , 77 ° 3'  E
Siachen Glacier (Ladakh)
Siachen Glacier
drainage NubraShyokIndus
Map of Kashmir (2004)

Map of Kashmir (2004)

Template: Infobox Glacier / Maintenance / Image description missing

The Siachen Glacier or Siachen (pronounced: Sia-tschen) is a 74 km long glacier in a disputed area between India and Pakistan . It lies at an altitude of up to 6400  m above sea level and is the second longest glacier outside of the polar regions after the Fedchenko glacier in the Pamirs in Tajikistan .

etymology

"Sia" is the name for wild roses in the Balti language . Translated, the name of the glacier means “Valley of the Wild Roses”.

geography

The glacier is located in the southeastern part of the Karakoram Mountains, on the central northern edge of Kashmir . Its nutrient area lies on the Indira Col , a saddle east of the Sia Kangri , which enables a transition to the Urdok Glacier in the Chinese- controlled Shaksgam Valley . From there the Siachen flows in a south-easterly direction and divides the Karakoram into the lower mountains of the Saltoro Mountains on the south-west side and the Siachen Muztagh on the north-east side of the glacier. The Siachen drains over the Nubra to the Shyok and finally over the Indus into the Indian Ocean .

Political conflict over ownership

In terms of state and political affiliation, he is part of the historically independent Kashmir, which was disputed between India and Pakistan . The border line between the two parts of the country runs in the middle of the glacier, the border line is not fixed. India is therefore insisting on a definitive agreement on the border question before a possible withdrawal of troops. Since the end of May 2005 there have been renewed negotiations between high-ranking government representatives from both conflicting states in the city of Rawalpindi in order to find a peaceful solution.

According to information from the German daily Die Welt , the Indian flag has been hoisted on the Bana summit of the Saltoro Mountains for twenty years . Since then, it has cost India an estimated US $ 2 million a month to deploy troops. Pakistan apparently demanded the withdrawal of both armies to the positions they held over twenty years ago before the Indian army occupied most of the glacier.

Due to a serious avalanche accident in the region - an avalanche buried a Pakistani camp on April 7, 2012 and buried over 100 soldiers - international attention was drawn to this highest arena of combat in the world.

Ascents and initiatives

On their Karakoram expedition in 1911 and 1912, the American explorer and mountaineer couple Fanny Bullock Workman and her husband William Hunter Workman were the first to reach the glacier from the west . In 1930 the Italian geologist Giotto Dainelli visited the Siachen and spent the summer in the meadow at the confluence , the confluence of the Teram Shehr and Siachen rivers. He completed the exploration and mapping of the Siachen. After him, the film team from Germany (Wolfgang Kohl, Jaroslav Poncar and Volker Stallbohm) came to Siachen via Bilafond La in the summer of 1978 . The last time before the Siachen conflict was in 1980 an American team led by Galen Rowell was able to cross the glacier on the Karakoram ski traverse. In 1996 the first civilian team was able to cross the Siachen Glacier again. It was a group led by Harish Kapadia on their way to the Terong Valley.

According to a corresponding initiative of the Peace Parks , both armies are to withdraw in order to create a cross-border and ecological Transboundary Peace Park from the glacier and the area.

Documentaries

The documentary Siachen - A war for Ice ( Italian Siachen - Una guerra per il ghiaccio ) was completed by the two Swiss mountaineers and filmmakers Fulvio Mariani and Mario Casella in 2005.

In the summer of 1978 Jaroslav Poncar and Wolfgang Kohl shot the documentary Through the Ice Wilderness of the East Karakoram - Expedition to the Largest Glacier . It was produced in Cologne for the WDR and broadcast in 1979.

See also

literature

  • Fanny Bullock Workman: The Exploration of the Siachen or Rose Glacier, Eastern Karakoram . In: The Geographical Journal . tape 43 , no. 2 . Spottiswoode & Co, 1914, p. 117-141 , doi : 10.2307 / 1778919 , JSTOR : 1778919 .
  • Fanny Bullock Workman, William Hunter Workman: Two summers in the ice-wilds of eastern Karakoram. The exploration of nineteen hundred square miles of mountain and glacier . EP Dutton & Co., New York 1917, OCLC 1526102 ( archive.org ).
  • KL Biringer: Siachen Science Center. A Concept for Cooperation at the Top of the World . US Dept. of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn. March 1, 1998, doi : 10.2172 / 589204 .
  • VR Raghavan: Siachen. Conflict without end . Viking, New Delhi / New York 2002, ISBN 0-670-04922-0 .
  • Sophie Mühlmann: India and Pakistan want to clear the borderline. Approach in negotiations on the highest battlefield in the world . In: Die Welt Online . May 27, 2005 ( welt.de [accessed September 6, 2016]).
  • Kunal Verma, Rajiv Williams: The long road to Siachen. The question why . Rupa & Co., New Delhi 2010, ISBN 978-81-291-1646-8 .
  • Stephen Venables: The Siachen Glacier. Ice highway . In: Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Robert Twigger (Eds.): The modern explorers . Thames & Hudson, London / New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-500-51684-3 .
  • Mahendra R. Bhutiyani: The Siachen Glacier. The Second Longest Glacier Outside the Polar Regions . In: Vishwas S. Kale (Ed.): Landscapes and Landforms of India . Springer, 2014, ISBN 978-94-017-8028-5 , pp. 105–113 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-94-017-8029-2_9 ( books.google.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Information on blankonthemap.free.fr
  2. India and Pakistan want to clear the border line. May 27, 2005, accessed December 28, 2009 .
  3. spiegel.de: Avalanche buried a hundred Pakistani soldiers.
  4. Harisch Kapadia: The Workman Expeditions, 1911 and 1912. In: On the Siachen Glacier (1998). indianmountaineeringfoundation.com . Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  5. ^ Harisch Kapadia: Europeans on the Glacier. In: On the Siachen Glacier (1998). indianmountaineeringfoundation.com . Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  6. Siachen: a war for ice (una guerra per il ghiaccio). In: c. realpina.ch, February 19, 2013, accessed on September 6, 2016 (it-IT).
  7. Siachen: a war for ice (una guerra per il ghiaccio) di Mario Casella e Fulvio Mariani
  8. Publications ›Documentary films , accessed on September 6, 2016