Climate change boosted risk of devastating Himalayan flood, experts say
Scientists say warming is destabilizing high-mountain ice and rock, and at least 800 foreigners are among nearly 1,500 missing, authorities said.
- Authorities reported on Aug 27 that nearly 1,500 people are missing, including at least 800 foreigners, following a massive Himalayan rock and mud avalanche that killed 165 people.
- Climate change destabilizes high-mountain rock and ice near the Nepal and Tibet border, where rising temperatures weaken mountainsides and increase meltwater, scientists say.
- The avalanche damaged at least six major hydropower plants and Gyirong Port infrastructure, altering river channels more than 62 miles downstream, while Nepal's glaciers melted 65% faster in the prior decade.
- Benjamin Horton, dean at the City University of Hong Kong, described the disaster as a "compound event," where earthquakes interact with climate-driven changes to "create a more complex and damaging disaster than would occur from any one factor alone."
- Similar catastrophic surges have occurred across the Hindu Kush range in recent years, including events in Sikkim and Thame, as experts warn that understanding cascading risks is essential for improving regional resilience.
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18 Articles
Climate change boosted risk of devastating Himalayan flood, experts say
Climate change is leading to conditions that can destabilise high-mountain rock and ice, strengthening prospects for disasters such as this week's Himalayan flood along the border between Nepal and China's Tibet that killed 165, scientists say.
Climate change boosted risk of devastating Himalayan flood: Experts - The Tribune
Climate change is leading to conditions that can destabilise high-mountain rock and ice, strengthening prospects for disasters such as this week’s Himalayan flood along the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet that killed 165, scientists say. At least 800 foreigners are among the nearly 1,500 missing, authorities said on Thursday, a day after a massive […]
According to Jakob Steiner, a researcher at the University of Graz, Austria, the erosion of mountains due to rising temperatures significantly increases the frequency of falls.
Climate Change Boosted Risk Of Devastating Nepal Flood: Experts
While the exact cause of Wednesday's disaster is still being analysed, scientists say it probably began with a massive ice-rock avalanche on the northern slopes of Nepal's Langtang Lirung peak into the Lhende Khola river on the Tibetan side.
Similar accidents can be expected in the future if climate change cannot be curbed, says the professor of geodynamics.
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