Chinese and American scientists using radar technology have discovered a huge glacier in the Himalayas, the head of the research team said Wednesday.

The glacier is 200 meters thick and covers 20 square km. Located at an elevation of 6,100 meters on Mount Namnani, the glacier is the thickest of its type found in China, said Yao Tandong, head of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Yao, who is heading the team of more than 20 Chinese and American scientists surveying the glaciers in the Himalayas, said such a large glacier is rarely found in areas of low latitude around the world.

Scientists also found many glacial falls and ice forests at the tongue tip of the Namnani glacier.

Yao said they had taken a six-meter-long ice sample from the core of the glacier to study the historical environment and climatic information in the area.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2004)