Researchers have discovered that half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking.
Dr Bodo Bookhagen Dirk Scherler and Manfred Strecker studied 286 glaciers between the Hindu Kush on the Afghan-Pakistan border to Bhutan taking in six areas.
Their report published in the journal Nature Geoscience found the key factor affecting their advance or retreat is the amount of debris – rocks and mud – strewn on their surface not the general nature of climate change.
Glaciers surrounded by high mountains and covered with more than two centimetres of debris are protected from melting.
Debris-covered glaciers are common in the rugged central Himalaya but they are almost absent in subdued landscapes on the Tibetan Plateau where retreat rates are higher.
In contrast more than 50 per cent of observed glaciers in the Karakoram region in the northwestern Himalaya are advancing or stable.
“Our study shows that there is no uniform response of Himalayan glaciers to climate change and highlights the importance of debris cover for understanding glacier retreat an effect that has so far been neglected in predictions of future water availability or global sea level” the authors concluded.