Centre for Environmental Technologies, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile; Department of Chemistry, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile.
Centre for Environmental Technologies, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile.
Environ Res. 2022 Nov;214(Pt 1):113756. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113756. Epub 2022 Jun 28.
Glaciers in Chilean Central Andes have significatively retreated, at least, in the last 60 years. From 2004 to 2014, the largest retreat in the area (-0.15 km yr) was observed at Olivares Alpha Glacier (OAG). Previous glacier fluctuation studies proposed that two open-pit mines distant 7 km from the glacier could be the cause of its enhanced retreat. However, this had not been yet tested due to the lack of measured data. Here, we investigated the impact that major air pollutants emitted by local mining activities could have on the differences observed in OAG glacial retreat compared with a glacier of similar size and altitude with no nearby anthropogenic sources: Bello Glacier (BG), which has a reported lower retreat (-0.02 km yr). Results revealed a link between anthropogenic air pollutants and glacial retreat rates, meaning that glacial retreat is decoupled from climatic and glaciological factors. Considering that both glaciers are located in the same climatic setting, the anthropogenic air pollutants deposited onto the OAG surface appear to be forcing positive feedback in which the pollutants deposition best explain the differences in the glacier retreat. With the results of this study, it has been calculated that the impact of mining in OAG could be responsible for 82% of its total retreat since between 2004 and 2014, and only the remaining 18% would correspond to the impact of climate change.
智利中央安第斯山脉的冰川至少在过去 60 年中已经显著退缩。从 2004 年到 2014 年，该地区最大的退缩发生在奥利瓦雷斯阿尔法冰川（OAG），退缩率为-0.15 公里/年。先前的冰川波动研究提出，距离冰川 7 公里的两个露天矿可能是其加速退缩的原因。然而，由于缺乏实测数据，这一点尚未得到验证。在这里，我们研究了当地采矿活动排放的主要空气污染物对 OAG 冰川退缩与没有附近人为源的类似大小和海拔的冰川（Bello 冰川（BG））观察到的差异的影响，BG 的退缩速度较慢（-0.02 公里/年）。结果表明，人为空气污染物与冰川退缩率之间存在联系，这意味着冰川退缩与气候和冰川因素脱钩。考虑到这两个冰川都位于相同的气候环境中，沉积在 OAG 表面的人为空气污染物似乎在推动正反馈，其中污染物沉积可以很好地解释冰川退缩的差异。根据这项研究的结果，自 2004 年至 2014 年以来，OAG 采矿的影响可能导致其总退缩的 82%，而气候变化的影响仅占 18%。
