Chinanews, Urumqi, November 2 – According to Qin Dahe, the famous glaciologist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the melting of the Tianshan-1 Glacier will definitely affect the weather pattern of oases in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Global warming should be blamed for the shrinking of glaciers in Xinjiang, particularly in the past 20 years.The Tianshan-1 Glacier is one of the major water resources of Urumqi, the regional capital, where the freshwater reserve is only 475 sq m per capita. Thus the melting of Tianshan-1 will surely be a heavy blow to the city and its neighboring areas.Xinjiang has 40%-50% of the total volume of glaciers in China. Tianshan-1 is located 180 km from Urumqi, where the snowline is averagely 4,050 m. It is also known as a typical glacier in arid or semi-arid areas.Since the 1950s, Tianshan-1 has kept shrinking.The fast melting of glaciers might lead to fatal disasters like flood, rockslide, etc, and eventually to drought.