Retreating Thajwas Glacier reveals Kashmir’s buried Ice Age landscape

Sparks calls for geo-heritage conservation

- Khalid Gul

The rapid retreat of the Thajwas Glacier near the tourist resort of Sonamarg is exposing a dramatic glacial landscape that experts say preserves evidence of Kashmir’s ancient ice history and could emerge as an important geo-heritage site in the Himalayas.

Hydro-geologist Riyaz Ahmad Mir of the National Institute of Hydrology said the glacier’s deglaciation has uncovered well-developed moraines, extensive outwash plains, and other depositional landforms that offer insights into the Kashmir’s glacial evolution, paleoclimate variability and cryospheric history.