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Figure 61. Changes in mass balance for winter (bw), summer (bs), and in annual/net mass balance (b) for a single glacier, Djankuat Glacier, Central Caucasus, Russia, at increasing elevation. Observational data have been averaged from 1968 to 1997. Meltwater runoff (≈bw) is about zero at elevations near 4,000 m where annual mass balance equals winter balance, which is annual snow accumulation. The equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) is the elevation on a glacier that separates the ablation area from the accumulation area (Paterson, 1994). |