China's Yellow River will be choked by ice jams due to global warming, study finds
Ice jams will become more frequent in the Yellow River's estuary by the end of this century, hitting
Chinese coastal cities such as those in eastern Shandong province, according to a new study.
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When
warmer weather arrives in late winter and early spring, upstream ice begins to break apart and drift downstream. This ice then reaches colder downstream areas, where it can refreeze and accumulate, forming ice jams.
The localised hazard can be highly destructive.
Flooding can occur behind the blockage, while a sudden ice jam collapse can release a torrent of ice and water,
damaging downstream communities , wildlife and infrastructure.
'By integrating historical records with climate projections, we provide compelling evidence that climate warming is not only driving a long-term decline in ice jam flood frequency but also shifting the geographic distribution of hotspots downstream,' the scientists wrote.
Researchers from Jiangsu Normal University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Bern in Switzerland published their findings – based on analysis of the dynamics of ice jam floods in the lower Yellow River over the past 160 years – in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances last week.
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The Yellow River is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world. While it is considered the cradle of Chinese civilisation, the river is also called 'China's Sorrow' for its history of devastating floods that took millions of lives in the last two centuries.
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