New Ecuadorian National Glacier Inventory

The first systematic Ecuadorian glacier inventory was performed in the early nineties. At that time the ice coverage corresponded to 92 KM2.The second systematic glacier inventory published in 1997 showed an area of 60 km2 of ice. In 2010 another research was carried out and a value of 48 Km2 was obtained. During 2016-2017 a new inventory was done for glaciers coverage using update aerial photographs. The objective of this research was to stablish the reduction of the glaciers of Cotopaxi and Chimborazo volcanoes and the risk associated with this process. Another important area of study correspond to the documentation of the extinction of Carihuyrazo Glacier which present area is of 0.03 Km2. This evaluation showed the response of Ecuadorian glaciers during the last seven years in relation to climatic conditions along the Ecuadorian Andes as a part of Tropical Glaciers. The coverage of these three glaciers was also affected by ash falls. The main results showed an average reduction of 4.1% for each coverage (seven ice caps). At present the total glacier coverage in Ecuador is of 43.5 km2 approximately and the equilibrium line altitude was placed at 5120 m.a.s.l .in average.