Tielidze et al. (2025) Post-Little Ice Age Shrinkage of the Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier System and Recent Proglacial Lake Evolution in the Georgian Caucasus

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-10
• Authors: Levan Tielidze, Akaki Nadaraia, Roman Kumladze, Simon J. Cook, Mikheil Lobjanidze, Qiao Liu, Irakli Megrelidze, Andrew Mackintosh, Guram Imnadze
• DOI: 10.3390/w17223209

Research Groups

Not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study reconstructs the post-Little Ice Age evolution of Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier in the Georgian Caucasus and documents the development of its newly formed proglacial lake, revealing significant glacier shrinkage and the rapid expansion of a lake prone to glacial lake outburst floods.

Objective

• To reconstruct the post-Little Ice Age (LIA) evolution of Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier and document the development of its newly formed proglacial lake.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier system in the Greater Caucasus, specifically the Georgian Caucasus.
• Temporal Scale: Approximately 1820 to 2025 (post-LIA period).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly mentioned (reconstruction based on multi-source data).
• Data sources: Geomorphological mapping, historical maps, multi-temporal satellite imagery, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry, sonar bathymetry, and long-term meteorological records.

Main Results

• Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier shrunk from approximately 48 square kilometres (km²) at its LIA maximum to approximately 30.6 km² in 2025, representing a loss of -43.5% (or -0.21% per year).
• The pace of glacier shrinkage intensified after 2000, with the steepest losses recorded between 2014 and 2025.
• Terminus positions shifted up-valley by nearly 3.9 kilometres (km) for Tsaneri and 4.3 km for Nageba, leading to the fragmentation of the former compound valley glacier.
• Long-term meteorological records confirm strong climatic forcing, characterized by pronounced summer warming since the 1990s and declining winter precipitation.
• A proglacial lake began forming in mid-summer 2015, with a surface area of approximately 14,366 square metres (m²) by 3 September 2015, expanding to approximately 106,945 m² by 10 July 2025.
• The lake is in contact with glacier ice, making it prone to calving, and is dammed by unconsolidated moraines and bounded by steep, active slopes, indicating susceptibility to generating a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF).

Contributions

• Provides the first detailed multi-temporal reconstruction of Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier's post-LIA evolution.
• Delivers the first direct quantitative measurements of a proglacial lake in the Tsaneri–Nageba system and the Georgian Caucasus.
• Establishes a crucial baseline for future monitoring and risk assessment of proglacial lakes in the region.
• Highlights the urgent need for integrating glaciological, geomorphological, and hazard studies to support community safety and water resource planning in the Caucasus.

Funding

Not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Tielidze2025PostLittle,
  author = {Tielidze, Levan and Nadaraia, Akaki and Kumladze, Roman and Cook, Simon J. and Lobjanidze, Mikheil and Liu, Qiao and Megrelidze, Irakli and Mackintosh, Andrew and Imnadze, Guram},
  title = {Post-Little Ice Age Shrinkage of the Tsaneri–Nageba Glacier System and Recent Proglacial Lake Evolution in the Georgian Caucasus},
  journal = {Water},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/w17223209},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/w17223209}
}