China develops first rock glacier dataset for Qinghai-Xizang Plateau

Chinese researchers have developed the first comprehensive dataset covering rock glaciers across the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, systematically revealing their distribution, movement and significance for permafrost, water resources and geological hazard research.

The research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a detailed survey of rock glaciers across the plateau.

Rock glaciers are typical periglacial landforms in high-mountain environments, generally formed by the slow movement of ice-rich debris.

They serve as important indicators of mountain permafrost and can also act as potential reservoirs of solid water and carriers of sediment and other materials.

The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is one of the world's largest concentrations of permafrost in the mid- and low latitudes and contains numerous rock glaciers.

However, high elevations, complex terrain and the high cost of manual interpretation have long made it difficult to establish a complete and standardized dataset containing information on their movement.

The new study identified 132,867 rock glacier units across the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, covering approximately 16,500 square kilometers.

The number exceeds the total number of rock glaciers previously documented worldwide, suggesting that their abundance and significance on the plateau and globally may have been substantially underestimated.

The researchers estimate that rock glaciers across the plateau contain 92 to 186 cubic kilometers of ice water equivalent, making them an overlooked component of solid water resources in Asia's "water tower." They could potentially provide long-term hydrological regulation in areas without glaciers or where glaciers are rapidly retreating.

Using high-resolution optical remote sensing imagery and other data, the team developed a deep-learning-based method for automatically identifying rock glaciers and created the first dataset covering the entire Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

The dataset has been made publicly available.

The research and dataset provide a new foundation for studying the plateau's periglacial environment and could also support a more comprehensive global assessment of rock glacier numbers and their significance.