Glacier retreat, lakes development and associated natural hazards in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru

Abstract

Cordillera Blanca is the heaviest glacierized tropical range in the world. Due to the global climate change, most of glaciers are retreating and thinning.

Glacier retreat leads to the formation and development of all types of potentially hazardous glacial lakes (bedrock-dammed x moraine-dammed x ice-dammed). Potential hazardousness of glacial lakes is strongly interconnected with dynamic slope movements

Keywords

• natural hazards
• glacier retreat
• dynamic slope movements
• GLOFs
• Cordillera Blanca