THE BATURA GLACIER IN THE KARAKORAM MOUNTAINS AND ITS VARIATIONS

The Karakoram Highway linking two countries, China and Pakistan, passes through the terminus of the well-known Batura Glacier in the northwest of the Karakoram Mountains. The advance and recession of the glacier and the migration of the meltwater channel have a great influence upon the highway. From 1974 to 1975, by using terrestrial stereophotogrammetry, the Glacier Investigation Group of China succeeded in making a survey of the drainage area of the Batura Glacier and drawing a 1: 50,000 topographic map. The Batura Muztagh, the highest peak in the area, is 7,795m a. s. l. Running from WNW to ESE, the Batura Glacier is 59.2 km long and has an area of 285km. The snowline there ranges from 4,700 to 5,300m a. s. l. The firn area （144 km） is a bit larger than the ablation area （141 km）. During the period of Neoglaciation, the glacier advanced to a place 2.5km downward from the present-day glacial terminus. Two hundred years ago and during the period of 1885—1925 the glacier advanced twice to the bed