Tian Shan glaciers are melting nearly four times faster than average
Since 1961 the Tian Shan has lost 27% of its glacier ice, about 5.4 billion tons, against a global average of 7%, and half of what remains may be gone by 2050. These Heavenly Mountains feed the Syr Darya, Ili and Tarim rivers across Central Asia.
The Tian Shan, also called Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, is a vast system of ranges running about 2,900 km east from Tashkent, north and west of the Taklamakan Desert and the Tarim Basin. It straddles Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and China's Xinjiang, meeting the Pamirs to the south and the Altai to the north and east. Part of the Himalayan mountain belt, it rose as India collided with Eurasia during the Cenozoic. Its relief is extreme: Jengish Chokusu, or Victory Peak, on the Kyrgyz–Chinese border, reaches 7,439 m and is Kyrgyzstan's highest point, while the Turpan Depression lies 154 m below sea level.
The mountains are sacred in Tengrism. The second summit, Khan Tengri, whose name can mean Lord of the Spirits, stands 7,010 m at the meeting point of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China and is Kazakhstan's highest peak. An early reference may survive in the Xiongnu word Qilian, which a Tang commentator glossed as sky or heaven. UNESCO listed the Xinjiang section as World Heritage in 2013 and the western ranges in 2016. The Russian explorer Peter Semenov documented the range in the 1850s and even changed his family name in its honour.
The Torugart Pass, at 3,752 m, crosses between Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang, and Turkic-speaking herders live in the lower, forested Alatau ranges in the north. West of the Chinese border the range splits around Issyk Kul lake. Continuous permafrost begins at about 3,500 to 3,700 m, and Schrenk's spruce forests grow above 2,000 m, while lower slopes shelter wild walnut and apple woods.
During the last ice age, glaciers covered roughly 118,000 km² and the snowline sat about 1,200 m lower than today, implying average temperatures 7.2 to 8.4 °C colder. Ice from the Kungey Alatau, which runs 230 km north of Issyk Kul, once calved directly into the lake.
Source: Tian Shan
