{"id":60831,"date":"2026-08-27T08:44:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=60831"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:45:04","slug":"collapsed-glacier-likely-caused-devastating-nepal-tibet-floods-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=60831","title":{"rendered":"Collapsed glacier likely caused devastating Nepal-Tibet floods, scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preliminary investigations have pointed to a collapsed glacier as the cause of the flash flood on the Nepal-Tibet border, highlighting the issue of rapidly melting Himalayan ice, scientists have told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial reports of an earthquake led many to believe that a tremor had caused a landslide, which in turn caused the flood that has killed at least 177 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the US Geological Survey then clarified that the disaster was caused by a “glacial collapse”, which is when a glacier or part of a glacier disintegrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of the collapsed glacier hitting the bottom of a valley was so powerful that it registered a magnitude of 5.2, according to USGS data and scientists who have analysed the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Simon Cook, a glacier expert with the University of Dundee, told the BBC his team had detected that the lower part of a glacier in Nepal near the Langtang Lirung peak – which is approximately 15km (9 miles) west of the site of the floods – had collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He estimated that the glacier collapsed in a northwesterly direction and then travelled westwards downstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An analysis\u00a0<\/a>by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an intergovernmental scientific institution, found there could have been “an ice-rock avalanche originating from a high-altitude area”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This caused a “large volume of ice and rock debris” to enter the Lende Khola, a tributary of the Bhote Koshi river, which in turn generated a sudden surge in the river carrying water, sediment and large boulders downstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centre found that water levels in rivers downstream rose between seven to nine metres within a span of 30 minutes, and several water monitoring stations were washed away or damaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The area is flanked by steep mountains, and videos of the flood show debris and water funnelled down the river at a rapid pace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: Preliminary investigations have pointed to a collapsed glacier as the cause of the flash flood on the Nepal-Tibet border, highlighting the issue of rapidly melting Himalayan ice, scientists have told the BBC. Initial reports of an earthquake led many to believe that a tremor had caused a landslide, which in turn caused the flood that has killed at least 177 people. However, the US Geological Survey then clarified that the disaster was caused by a “glacial collapse”, which is when a glacier or part of a glacier disintegrates. The impact of the collapsed glacier hitting the bottom of a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60833,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60831\/revisions\/60833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}