THE Himalayan desert of Ladakh is home to this majestic tower of ice, known as an ice stupa, after the domed Buddhist buildings. It is effectively an artificial glacier, created by local people to store water and designed to start melting when they need it.
In winter, temperatures in Ladakh rarely rise much above -40°C, and can fall below freezing even on summer nights. The area receives little rain, so local people rely on melting glaciers to obtain water for irrigation and livestock.
Advertisement
But climate change has caused the glaciers to shrink and the flow of their meltwater to become erratic. To get around this, in late summer, local people catch glacial meltwater in underground pipes. The water is sprayed onto a domed structure at night, where it freezes.
The ice stupa starts to melt in March and will continue to do so until around July, when rainfall is at its lowest. Its conical shape shields much of the ice from the sun. This means the tower, which can reach 50 metres in height, melts slowly, feeding surrounding streams. The following summer, the cycle repeats.
Topics:
