Measurement of Twentieth Century Ice Loss on the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand

Abstract

In November 1962, levels were determined along two profiles across the lower ablation zone of the Tasman Glacier on lines originally surveyed by T. N. Brodrick 72 years earlier. These show that at an altitude of 1,100 m an average thickness of 82-1 m of ice has been lost since 1890. The total mass loss over the whole ablation zone in this time is of the order of 3 × 10¹² kg.