July 1 glacier

Located in the hinterland of Qilian Mountains in Qifeng Tibetan Township, 116 km southwest of Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, the "July 1" glacier is the nearest touring glacier to the city in Asia. It was discovered on July 1, 1958 by scientific and technological workers of Lanzhou Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Glaciology experts of the former Soviet Union, and named after the date of discovery. The average thickness of the glacier is 78 meters, the thickest is 120 meters, the altitude of the ice peak is 5150 meters, and the altitude of the front of the ice tongue is 4360 meters.

July 1 glacier

Qiyi glacier is located in the hinterland of Qilian Mountain in Qifeng Tibetan Township, 116 km southwest of Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province. It has the peak of Mount Qomolangma and the rock of tu'er mountain. It is the nearest touring glacier in Asia to the city. It was discovered on July 1, 1958 by scientific and technological workers of Lanzhou Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Glaciology experts of the former Soviet Union, and named after the date of discovery. The average thickness of the glacier is 78 meters, the thickest is 120 meters, the altitude of the ice peak is 5150 meters, and the altitude of the front of the ice tongue is 4360 meters.

geographical position

Qiyi glacier is located in Jiayuguan, the hinterland of Qilian Mountain in Qifeng Tibetan Township, Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province

116 km southwest. The Qiyi glacier has a tongue front at an altitude of 4300 meters. Looking up from the stone tablet of "July 1 glacier", there is a glittering world of ice and snow under the blue sky and white clouds. The July 1 glacier is slanting on the hillside with a slope of less than 45 degrees, with a total length of about 3 kilometers. The average thickness of the ice layer is 78 meters, the altitude of the ice peak is 5150 meters, and the thickest point is 120 meters. The annual water storage is 160 million cubic meters, and the melt water is 700000-800000 cubic meters. It has become a large solid fresh water reservoir. Qilian Mountain is a group of parallel fold fault block mountains on the south side of Hexi Corridor, with a length of 900-1000 km and an altitude of more than 3000 m, of which there are 26 peaks above 5000 m. Qilian Mountain is the ancient Xiongnu language, which originally means "Tianshan Mountain". It is said that its peak towering in the sky. There are 3066 glaciers in the mountains, with a total area of 2062.72 square kilometers. It is a typical plateau glacier. Glacier reserves reach 114.5 billion cubic meters, and its melt water is the water source foundation of oasis in Hexi Corridor, known as "Alpine reservoir". Qiyi glacier is only one of the many glaciers in Qilian Mountain.

Cause of formation

The July 1 glacier was formed about 200 million years ago. It is covered with snow all the year round. Glacier is a form of water, which is transformed from snow through a series of changes. To form a glacier, a certain amount of solid precipitation, including snow, fog, hail and so on, is necessary. If there is not enough solid precipitation as "raw material", it is equivalent to "cooking without rice" and can not form a glacier at all.

Glaciers exist in extremely cold places. The Antarctic and Arctic regions of the earth are extremely cold all the year round. In other regions, only high-altitude mountains can form glaciers. July 1 glacier is developed on high mountains, so it is called mountain glacier.

In addition to a certain altitude, the development of glaciers in high mountains also requires that the mountains should not be too steep. If the mountain is too steep, the falling snow will go down the slope and will not form snow. Snowflakes will change as soon as they fall to the ground. With the change of external conditions and time, snowflakes will become spherical snow that completely loses its crystal characteristics, which is called granular snow. After the snow becomes granular snow, with the passage of time, the hardness of granular snow and the compactness between them continue to increase, and the large and small granular snow squeeze each other and are closely embedded together, and the pores between them continue to shrink The brightness and transparency of the snow layer gradually weaken, and some air is enclosed in it, thus forming glacial ice. The glacier ice was milky white at the beginning of its formation. After a long time, the glacier ice became more compact and hard, and the bubbles in it gradually decreased, and gradually became crystal clear, with blue crystal like old glacier ice. Glaciers are formed by the slow flow of glacial ice along the hillside under the action of gravity.

Glacial landscape

Every summer and autumn, the ice peak of the "July 1" glacier is shining brightly under the blue sky and beautiful sun. Together with the gurgling streams and the mountains and pastures with green grass and blooming flowers, it forms a quiet and charming picture.

The landscape of July 1 glacier is unique. From a distance, it looks like the Milky Way hanging upside down, and the ice tongue is slanting, the ice wall is standing, the ice curtain is hanging, and the ice bucket is deep and mysterious. There are 5 kilometers of footpaths built at the glacier, and the monument of "green mountain is not old, but snow white head" is erected. The tourist area is about 4 square kilometers.

Current situation of glaciers

Through field observation and analysis, Chinese scientists found that the Qiyi glacier, the closest glacier to the city in Asia, is gradually shrinking, especially in recent years, which is mainly manifested by the serious negative balance of glacier material and the rising position of zero balance line of glacier.

Experts from the Institute of environment and Engineering in cold and arid regions, Chinese Academy of Sciences, analyzed the observation results of Qilian Mountain's Qiyi glacier in 2001 / 2002 and 2002 / 2003, and found that the material of Qiyi glacier appeared serious negative balance, which were - 810mm and - 316mm water equivalent, respectively. That is to say, the melting amount of ice and snow was far greater than the accumulation amount, the loss was strong, and the ice surface appeared significant thinning state The year with the largest negative balance in the data.

At the same time, experts calculated that the zero equilibrium line elevation of July 1 glacier in 2002 and 2003 were 5012m and 4940m respectively, with an average of 4970m. Compared with the average results of the actual observation in the 1970s (4600m above sea level) and 1980s (4670m above sea level), it increased by 370m and 300m respectively. The zero equilibrium line is the most sensitive indicator of glacier response to climate change. At this height, the annual accumulation of glacier is equal to the annual ablation, that is, the material balance is equal to zero. The amount of melting and accumulation of glaciers determines the expansion and reduction of the area of melting and accumulation areas of glaciers, thus affecting the fluctuation of the zero equilibrium line of glaciers.

Through the analysis of the observation results in the past 30 years, experts pointed out that the rising process of the mass balance of July 1 glacier from positive balance to stable and then to the huge negative balance and zero balance line in recent two years strongly reflects the response process of glacier to climate change under the background of global warming. The results also show the role of climate warming in the glacier material cycle. If the climate warming trend continues, the negative value of glacier material balance will increase, the ice surface will thin and the snow line will rise, and the glacier shrinkage will continue.

Address: Qilian Mountain hinterland in Qifeng Tibetan Township, 116 km southwest of Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province

Longitude: 98.225822

Latitude: 39.820063

Tour time: 12 hours

Traffic information: take the green train from Jiayuguan to Jingtieshan station, and then take the bus

Ticket information: 160 / person

Opening hours: 8:00-17:00

Chinese PinYin : Qi Yi Bing Chuan