We present geodetic mass-balance estimates for ten glaciers (22.6 ± 1.1 km²) around Volcán Domuyo between 1962 and 2020 (and 46 glaciers covering 29 ± 1.5 km² between 1984 and 2020), derived from airborne, ASTER and Pléiades imagery. Overall, we find a slightly negative mass balance (−0.15 ± 0.09 m w.e. a^–1) for the entire 1962–2020 time span. A closer inspection of sub-periods reveals, however, an increasingly negative mass balance with time. The Domuyo glaciers shifted from a moderately positive mass balance of +0.28 ± 0.13 m w.e. a^–1 between 1962 and 1984, to a strongly negative mass balance of −0.99 ± 0.19 m w.e. a^–1 between 2012 and 2020. An increase in summer temperatures and a decrease in winter precipitation during the last four decades are likely drivers of the observed glacier changes. We support this finding by implementing a minimal glacier model, relying solely on monthly precipitation and air temperatures. The mass-balance evolution detected in Volcán Domuyo is consistent with other sites spread across the Central Andes, suggesting rapidly increasing glacier wastage impacts are occurring at a geographically wider scale.

We present the first glacier inventory of the Monte San Lorenzo region (47°35′S, 72°18′W) in the southern Patagonian Andes of Chile and Argentina. This region contains the largest and easternmost glaciers at these latitudes in South America. The inventory was developed using a combination of ASTER and Landsat ETM + scenes from 2005 and 2008, respectively, and a semi-automatic band ratio approach to map glacier ice. Manual corrections were applied to include debris-covered ice and ice in cast shadows. We inventoried 213 glaciers that cover a 2005/2008 total area of ca. 207 km2 and lie between 520 m and 3700 m in elevation. Landsat TM images acquired in 1985 and 2000 were subsequently used to assess changes in glacierized area over the 1985–2008 interval. Based on all available information, we determined an 18.6% reduction in the total glacier area since 1985. Glaciers smaller than 1 km2 have shown highly variable (0–100%) relative areal reduction, whereas the formation and growth of proglacial lak...

Among glacier instabilities, collapses of large parts of low-angle glaciers are a striking, exceptional phenomenon. So far, merely the 2002 collapse of Kolka Glacier in the Caucasus Mountains and the 2016 twin detachments of the Aru glaciers in western Tibet have been well documented. Here we report on the previously unnoticed collapse of an unnamed cirque glacier in the Central Andes of Argentina in March 2007. Although of much smaller ice volume, this $\mathrm{4.2}\pm \mathrm{0.6}\times {\mathrm{10}}^{\mathrm{6}}$ m³ collapse in the Andes is similar to the Caucasus and Tibet ones in that the resulting ice avalanche travelled a total distance of ∼2 km over a surprisingly low angle of reach (∼5 ^∘).

Glaciers are crucial sources of freshwater in particular for the arid lowlands surrounding High Mountain Asia. To better constrain glacio-hydrological models, annual, or even better, seasonal information about glacier mass changes is highly beneficial. In this study, we evaluate the suitability of very-high-resolution Pléiades digital elevation models (DEMs) to measure glacier mass balance at annual and seasonal scales in two regions of High Mountain Asia (Muztagh Ata in Eastern Pamirs and parts of western Nyainqêntanglha, south-central Tibetan Plateau), where recent estimates have shown contrasting glacier behaviour. The average annual mass balance in Muztagh Ata between 2019 and 2022 was −0.07 ± 0.20 m w.e. a⁻¹, suggesting the continuation of a recent phase of slight mass loss following a prolonged period of balanced mass budgets previously observed. The mean annual mass balance in western Nyainqêntanglha was highly negative for the same period (−0.60 ± 0.15 m w.e. a⁻¹), suggesting increased mass loss rates compared to the approximately previous 5 decades. The 2022 winter (+0.13 ± 0.24 m w.e.) and summer (−0.35 ± 0.15 m w.e.) mass budgets in Muztagh Ata and western Nyainqêntanglha (−0.03 ± 0.27 m w.e. in winter; −0.63 ± 0.07 m w.e. in summer) suggest winter- and summer-accumulation-type regimes, respectively. We support our findings by implementing the Sentinel-1-based Glacier Index to identify the firn and wet-snow areas on glaciers and characterize the accumulation type. The good match between the geodetic and Glacier Index results supports the potential of very-high-resolution Pléiades data to monitor mass balance at short timescales and improves our understanding of glacier accumulation regimes across High Mountain Asia.