Graham: many thanks for the interesting material. I also have not seen anything pre 1943 but will try and get Kingdon Ward's book on ILL. Best Roger Graham Cogley wrote:
Roger - Very interesting. These words about the source of the Irrawaddy appear in a few hundred web locations, according to Google. They all appear to be copied from page 278 of de Terra (1943), but I cannot get back further than that because he does not give a source for the "Languela glacier".
I am attaching a fragment of a paper that I drafted in 2007, when I was hoping to interest Andrew Klein (Texas A&M) in inventorying the Burmese glaciers from satellite imagery. The fragment contains all the facts I had dragged together at that time. As far as I know, Andrew has not followed up the suggestion.
A rough guess, from looking at Hkakabo Razi on Google Earth, is that the Burmese glaciers might cover 10-15 km^2. There are glaciers on the Chinese side of the mountain, and they are inventoried in the Chinese inventory.
Best wishes, Graham.
Link to de Terra: http://books.google.ca/books?id=21gLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA278&lpg=PA278&dq=Languela+ glacier&source=bl&ots=KdWRIzomlJ&sig=ilBm0M05QN0FK7GioVk1VGo05Mw&hl=en&ei=8z YNTKi7F8H-8AaW_KyKBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB8Q6AEwBDg K#v=onepage&q=Languela%20glacier&f=false
Reference: De Terra, H., 1943, The Pleistocene in Burma, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 32(3), 271-339.
J. Graham Cogley, Ph.D., Professor of Geography, Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, CANADA K9J 7B8.
Tel +1 705-748-1011-x7686 Fax +1 705-742-2131 Email gcogley@trentu.ca Web http://www.trentu.ca/geography/glaciology
-----Original Message----- From: owner-glims@flagmail.wr.usgs.gov [mailto:owner-glims@flagmail.wr.usgs.gov] On Behalf Of Roger Barry Sent: June-07-10 1:49 PM To: gcogley1@cogeco.ca; GLIMS Mailing List Subject: Glaciers in Burma
FYI Roger
The Irrawaddy is formed by the confluence of the Nmai and Mali rivers. Both branches rise in the glaciers of the high and remote mountains in northern Myanmar in the vicinity of 28° N. The eastern branch, the Nmai, rises in the Languela glacier on the border with Tibet (China) and has the greater volume of water