Glaciological Mass balance of Znosko Glacier, King George Island

Abstract

The present article objective is to determine the net mass balance of the glacier Znosko for periods 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. It is situated on King George Island which belongs to the groups Shetland of the South, Antarctic Peninsula region. For this objective, during February 2018 a net of 19 stakes (which were controlled once during February 2019 and 2020) were installed on the glacier ablation zone, drilling in the accumulation zone and about flights using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to control the glacier zone and geomorphological changes. For the year 2020, it was determined a glacier area of 1.71 ± 0.02 km2, moreover, using five different methods of interpolation, it was obtained on average, as a result, a specific net balance of -590.7 ± 46.6 mm w.e (in water equivalent) for 2018-2019 and -686.7 ± 28.2 mm w.e for 2019-2020, being the ELA altitude 146.5 ± 18.2 m and 144.2 ± 8.3 m respectively. The two consecutive years represent negative net mass balances which are in accordance with other similar studies on this region, also glacier data were obtained on a zone that is characterized by its difficult access.