Jeffrey S. Kargel

Jeffrey S. Kargel
Planetary Science Institute

PhD

About

519
Publications
131,575
Reads
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19,897
Citations
Introduction
Current research: Remote sensing of the world's glaciers; geomorphology of Mars; organic geochemistry of Titan
Additional affiliations
August 2002 - December 2004
The Ohio State University
Position
  • Research Associate
October 1992 - April 2005
United States Geological Survey
Position
  • Geologist
April 2005 - present
University of Arizona
Position
  • Adjunct Professor and Senior Assoc. Research Scientist

Publications

Publications (519)
Preprint
Full-text available
In High Mountain Asia (HMA) ongoing climate change threatens mountain water resources as glaciers melt, and the resulting changes in runoff and water availability are likely to have considerable negative impacts on ecological and human systems. Numerous assessments of the ways in which these glaciers will respond to climate warming have been publis...
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Understanding the conditions that governed the distribution of coseismic landslide frequency and size from past earthquakes is imperative for quantifying the hazard potential of future events. However, it remains a challenge to evaluate the many factors controlling coseismic landsliding including ground shaking, topography, rock strength, and hydro...
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In his paper we model the evolution of the exposure of the Lower Barun lake (located in the Nepal Himalaya) to avalanches from the surrounding susceptible slopes under various SSP scenarios. We used numerical ice-flow modelling for this purpose.
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We present a new model called Bayesian Estimated Glacial Lake Volume (BE‐GLAV) to estimate the volume of proglacial lakes. Presuming the lake cross‐section as trapezoidal, BE‐GLAV uses a Bayesian calibration approach to adjust the cross‐sectional geometry to match modeled and observed lake surface widths. We validated our model using bathymetric me...
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As the world’s glaciers recede in response to a warming atmosphere, a change in the magnitude and frequency of related hazards is expected. Among the most destructive hazards are glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and their future evolution is concerning for local populations and sustainable development policy. Central to this is a better unders...
Preprint
Full-text available
As the world’s glaciers recede in response to a warming atmosphere, a change in the magnitude and frequency of related hazards is expected. Among the most destructive hazards are Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), and their future evolution is concerning for local populations and sustainable development policy. Central to this is a better unders...
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In evaluating the unique geomorphology of Hebrus Valles on Mars, an outflow channel southeast of Utopia Planitia, we investigated the role of fluvial dynamics in forming subsurface conduits. Unlike typical Martian channels that terminate under younger sediment rocks, Hebrus Valles retains its downstream features, thus offering a window into surface...
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The discovery of global elemental volatile compositions, sublimation hollows, and chaotic terrains has significantly reshaped our understanding of Mercury's geology. These findings suggest the existence of volatile-rich layers (VRLs) extending several kilometers in depth, challenging the traditionally held view of a predominantly volatile-devoid Me...
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The quest for past Martian life hinges on locating surface formations linked to ancient habitability. While Mars' surface is considered to have become cryogenic ~3.7 Ga, stable subsurface aquifers persisted long after this transition. Their extensive collapse triggered megafloods ~3.4 Ga, and the resulting outflow channel excavation generated volum...
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Himalayan glaciers represent both an important source of water and a major suite of geohazards for inhabitants of their downstream regions. Recent climate change has intersected with local topographic, geomorphic, and glaciological factors to drive complex patterns of glacier thinning, retreat, velocity change, and lake development. In this study,...
Preprint
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16 Himalayan glaciers represent both an important source of water and a major suite of 17 geohazards for inhabitants of their downstream regions. Recent climate change has intersected 18 with local topographic, geomorphic, and glaciological factors to drive complex patterns of glacier 19 thinning, retreat, velocity change, and lake development. In...
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In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 Lander (V1L) was the first spacecraft to operate successfully on the Martian surface. The V1L landed near the terminus of an enormous catastrophic flood channel, Maja Valles. However, instead of the expected megaflood record, its cameras imaged a boulder-strewn surface of elusive origin. We identified a 110-km-diameter impa...
Article
In recent decades, climate change has significantly affected glacier dynamics, resulting in mass loss and an increased risk of glacier-related hazards including supraglacial and proglacial lake development, as well as catastrophic outburst flooding. Rapidly changing conditions dictate the need for continuous and detailed observations and analysis o...
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Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a great concern for the Himalaya, as they can severely damage downstream populations and infrastructures. These floods originate at high altitudes and can flow down with enormous energy and change the terrain's existing morphology. One such devastating event occurred on the night of 5 July 2016, from the inc...
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Landslides triggered by earthquake shaking pose a significant hazard in active mountain regions. Steep topography promotes gravitational instabilities and can amplify the seismic wavefield; however, the relationship between topographic amplification and landsliding is poorly understood. Here, we use numerical methods to investigate the link between...
Preprint
Full-text available
In recent decades, climate change has significantly affected glacier dynamics, resulting in mass loss and an increased risk of glacier-related hazards including supraglacial and proglacial lake development, as well as catastrophic outburst flooding. Rapidly changing conditions dictate the need for continuous and detailed observations and analysis o...
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Full-text available
Earth's global composition and its differentiation into core, mantle, and crust.
Article
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Venus's global composition from Soviet lander data, and the volcanic geomorphology of the landing sites using Magellan radar imagery.
Conference Paper
Though Venus’s atmospheric conditions and composition have been directly measured, the composition of the Venus lower atmosphere near the surface is generally still poorly known. It was extrapolated from observational data at other altitudes by assuming the constancy of elemental composition without condensation (Krasnopolsky 2007). Both in-situ me...
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A deadly cascade A catastrophic landslide in Uttarakhand state in India on February 2021 damaged two hydropower plants, and more than 200 people were killed or are missing. Shugar et al. describe the cascade of events that led to this disaster. A massive rock and ice avalanche roared down a Himalayan valley, turning into a deadly debris flow upstre...
Article
Waters of high Asia How the rivers of the Himalaya-Karakoram region of Asia respond to climate change is critical for the billion-plus people who depend on the water that they provide. In a review, Azam et al . discuss recent progress in understanding the importance of glacier and snow melt in the hydrological budget there, which is driven largely...
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The detachment of large parts of low-angle mountain glaciers resulting in massive ice–rock avalanches have so far been believed to be a unique type of event, made known to the global scientific community first for the 2002 Kolka Glacier detachment, Caucasus Mountains, and then for the 2016 collapses of two glaciers in the Aru range, Tibet. Since 20...
Article
Full-text available
Atmospheric warming is intensifying glacier melting and glacial-lake development in High Mountain Asia (HMA), and this could increase glacial-lake outburst flood (GLOF) hazards and impact water resources and hydroelectric-power management. There is therefore a pressing need to obtain comprehensive knowledge of the distribution and area of glacial l...
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Climate change-driven retreat of glaciers is producing thousands of glacial lakes across mountain regions. These lakes generally grow, coalesce into larger lakes that may produce increased downstream hazards and risks due to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). This study assesses such hazards of Lower Barun Lake located near Mount Everest, Nepal....
Preprint
Full-text available
The detachment of large parts of low-angle mountain glaciers, resulting in massive ice-rock avalanches, have so far been believed to be a unique type of event, made known to the global scientific community first for the 2002 Kolka Glacier detachment, Caucasus Mountains, and then for the 2016 collapses of two glaciers in the Aru range, Tibet. Since...
Article
Full-text available
Glacial lakes are rapidly growing in response to climate change and glacier retreat. The role of these lakes as terrestrial storage for glacial meltwater is currently unknown and not accounted for in global sea level assessments. Here, we map glacier lakes around the world using 254,795 satellite images and use scaling relations to estimate that gl...
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The oldest terrains of Mars are cratered landscapes, in which extensive valleys and basins are covered by ubiquitous fluvial plains. One current paradigm maintains that an impact-generated megaregolith underlies these sediments. This megaregolith was likely largely generated during the Early Noachian (~4.1 to ~3.94 Ga) when most Martian impact basi...
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Rising global temperatures over the past decades is directly affecting glacier dynamics. To understand glacier fluctuations and document regional glacier-state trends, glacier-boundary detection is necessary. Debris-covered glacier (DCG) mapping, however, is notoriously difficult using conventional geospatial technology methods. Therefore, in this...
Preprint
Full-text available
Abstract. Climate change is intensifying glacier melting and lake development in High Mountain Asia (HMA), which could increase glacial lake outburst flood hazards and impact water resource and hydroelectric power management. However, quantification of variability in size and type of glacial lakes at high resolution has been incomplete in HMA. Here...
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Mercury’s images obtained by the 1974 Mariner 10 flybys show extensive cratered landscapes degraded into vast knob fields, known as chaotic terrain (AKA hilly and lineated terrain). For nearly half a century, it was considered that these terrains formed due to catastrophic quakes and ejecta fallout produced by the antipodal Caloris basin impact. He...
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In 2017–2019 a surge of Shispare Glacier, a former tributary of the once larger Hasanabad Glacier (Hunza region), dammed the proglacial river of Muchuhar Glacier, which formed an ice-dammed lake and generated a small Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). Surge movement produced the highest recorded Karakoram glacier surface flow rate using feature tr...
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Mountains are the water towers of the world, supplying a substantial part of both natural and anthropogenic water demands1,2. They are highly sensitive and prone to climate change3,4, yet their importance and vulnerability have not been quantified at the global scale. Here, we present a global Water Tower Index, which ranks all water towers in term...
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The formation and expansion of Himalayan glacial lakes has implications for glacier dynamics, mass balance and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Subaerial and subaqueous calving is an important component of glacier mass loss but they have been difficult to track due to spatiotemporal resolution limitations in remote sensing data and few field o...
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In the above article [1] , Figure 2 was incorrect. Unfortunately, we mixed the color label of “CONV $\to $ BN $\to $ ReLu” and “Unpooling” in the CNN structure section of Figure 2 . The color label of “CONV $\to $ BN $\to $ ReLu” should be orange while the color label of “Unpooling” should be green. Also, the word “Decoder” is misspel...
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Cascading hazard processes refer to a primary trigger such as heavy rainfall, seismic activity, or snow melt, followed by a chain or web of consequences that can cause subsequent hazards influenced by a complex array of preconditions and vulnerabilities. These interact in multiple ways and can have tremendous impacts on populations proximate to or...
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The Martian outflow channels comprise some of the largest known channels in the Solar System. Remote-sensing investigations indicate that cataclysmic floods likely excavated the channels ~3.4 Ga. Previous studies show that, in the southern circum-Chryse region, their flooding pathways include hundreds of kilometers of channel floors with upward gra...
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Phewa Lake is an environmental and socio-economic asset to Nepal and the city of Pokhara. However, the lake area has decreased in recent decades due to sediment influx. The rate of this decline and the areal evolution of Phewa Lake due to artificial damming and sedimentation is disputed in the literature due to the lack of a historical time series....
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Topography derived using human-portable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and structure from motion photogrammetry offers an order of magnitude improvement in spatial resolution and uncertainty over small survey extents, compared to global digital elevation model (DEM) products, which are often the only available choice of DEMs in the high-mountain H...
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In north-western Tibet (34.0∘ N, 82.2∘ E) near lake Aru Co, the entire ablation areas of two glaciers (Aru-1 and Aru-2) suddenly collapsed on 17 July and 21 September 2016. The masses transformed into ice avalanches with volumes of 68 and 83×106 m3 and ran out up to 7 km in horizontal distance, killing nine people. The only similar event currently...
Article
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Glacier recession driven by climate change produces glacial lakes, some of which are hazardous. Our study assesses the evolution of three of the most hazardous moraine-dammed proglacial lakes in the Nepal Himalaya—Imja, Lower Barun, and Thulagi. Imja Lake (up to 150 m deep; 78.4 × 106 m3 volume; surveyed in October 2014) and Lower Barun Lake (205 m...
Article
Full-text available
Despite recent research identifying a clear anthropogenic impact on glacier recession, the effect of recent climate change on glacier-related hazards is at present unclear. Here we present the first global spatio-temporal assessment of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) focusing explicitly on lake drainage following moraine dam failure. These flo...
Article
Full-text available
In northwestern Tibet (34.0° N, 82.2° E) near lake Aru Co, the entire ablation area of two glaciers (Aru-1 and Aru-2) suddenly collapsed on 17 July 2016 and 21 September 2016, respectively, and transformed into 68 and 83 10⁶ m³ mass flows that ran out up to 7 km, killing nine people. The only similar event currently documented is the 2002 Kolka Gla...
Article
Full-text available
Pluto’s surface is covered by volatile ices that are in equilibrium with the atmosphere. Multicomponent phase equilibria may be calculated using a thermodynamic equation of state and, without additional assumptions, result in methane-rich and nitrogen-rich solid phases. The former is formed at temperature range between the atmospheric pressure-depe...
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Titan's lower atmosphere has condensed phases in equilibrium with it. It is well known that there is a liquid phase in lakes and liquid condensates in the lower troposphere that are part of the liquid cycle in Titan's system. This work analyzes further the phase equilibria using CRYOCHEM equation of state by accounting for solid phases that can exi...
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Surges and glacier avalanches are expressions of glacier instability, and among the most dramatic phenomena in the mountain cryosphere. Until now, the catastrophic collapse of a glacier, combining the large volume of surges and mobility of ice avalanches, has been reported only for the 2002 130 × 10^6 m3 detachment of Kolka Glacier (Caucasus Mounta...
Article
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We present a comprehensive review of the status and changes in glacier length (since the 1850s), area and mass (since the 1960s) along the Himalayan-Karakoram (HK) region and their climate-change context. A quantitative reliability classification of the field-based mass-balance series is developed. Glaciological mass balances agree better with remo...
Article
Full-text available
Despite recent research identifying a clear anthropogenic impact on glacier recession, the effect of recent climate change on glacier-related hazards is at present unclear. Here we present the first global spatio-temporal assessment of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) focusing explicitly on lake drainage following moraine dam failure. These flo...
Article
A study has been carried out in part of Chenab basin, Himalaya to understand the relationship between glacio-morphological factors and change in glacial area. Initially change in areal extent of glaciers was derived for two time frames (1962-2001/02 and 2001/02-2010/11). The study comprised of 324 glaciers for the monitoring period of 1962-2001/02...
Article
During the past 15 years, evidence for an ice-rich planet Mars has rapidly mounted, become increasingly varied in terms of types of deposits and types of observational data, and has become more widespread across the surface. The mid-latitudes of Mars, especially Utopia Planitia, show many types of interesting landforms similar to those in periglaci...
Article
On Mars, evidence indicates widespread calcium sulfate minerals. Gypsum (CaSO4⋅2H2O) seems to be the dominant calcium sulfate mineral in the north polar region of Mars. On the other hand, anhydrite (CaSO4) and bassanite (CaSO4⋅0.5H2O) appear to be more common in large sedimentary deposits in the lower latitudes. The tropics are generally warmer and...
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It has been proposed that ~3.4 billion years ago an ocean fed by enormous catastrophic floods covered most of the Martian northern lowlands. However, a persistent problem with this hypothesis is the lack of definitive paleoshoreline features. Here, based on geomorphic and thermal image mapping in the circum-Chryse and northwestern Arabia Terra regi...