A glacial collapse is thought to have triggered the huge flash flood of churning water, ice and mud that surged through communities near the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday.
More than 150 people have died and almost 1,500 people, including at least 34 Australians, are missing, authorities say.
This was not an ordinary rain-driven flash flood, but what disaster scientists call a “cascading event”, write Milad Haghani and Zahra Shahhoseini.
Scientists say a massive glacier collapsed high in the mountains. Satellite images show a large glacial section breaking away at an altitude of around 5,200 metres and plunging into the valley below. This seems to have triggered an ice-rock avalanche, which blocked the river with debris until this temporary dam failed and the water surged downstream.
While footage of this debris-laden flash flood is shocking, it’s unfortunately not surprising, writes glacier researcher Levan Tielidze. As climate change intensifies, glaciers worldwide are melting, even at high altitudes in the Himalayas. While it’s too early to say climate change was the cause of this tragedy, we do know the great ice stores of the Himalayas – known as Earth’s “"third pole”“ – are heating up.
