Chemical characteristics of four kinds of water in the rongbuk glacier basin, Mount Qomolangma

The chemistry of water samples collected in May of 1997 from snow, lakes, rivers, and spring on the north side of Mt. Qomolangma is reported. The pH value is between 7.35–8.52, the order of which is: lake water>river water>snow. All the samples are alkalinity. The pH values of the surface snow samples are relatively higher than the other China’s glacial regions. The conductivity of the samples is low, varying between 34.8 - 194 μs/cm. The conductivity values and total concentrations of the samples on the same glacier usually increase with decreasing altitude, but ones of the surface snow samples are converse for topographical causes. The anions are determined, the SO₄²⁻ concentration is the highest in river and lake samples; in the surface snow samples, the Cl⁻ concentration is the highest. Among the cations of all the samples, the Ca²⁺ concentration is the highest. The relationships between SO₄^2-, Mg²⁺, F⁻, Ca²⁺, conductivity and the total concentrations show the increasing trend. On the other side, the conductivity, F⁻, Ca²⁺, the total concentration, SO₄²⁻ and Mg²⁺ of the river water samples all increase with decreasing altitude. This work was supported by the “National Climbing Project” (Grant No. 95 - yu - 40), “The Great Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences” (Grant No. KZ951 - A1 - 402 - 03), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 49871022). We thank Dr. Hou Shugui for his helpful comments.