What We Know — and Don’t Know — About What Caused the Nepal Flood Wave
- On Wednesday, a massive wave of floodwater engulfed a Nepal-China border crossing, forcing residents to flee the area immediately. Security camera footage captured the sudden, destructive surge as it crashed through the mountainous region.
- Following the disaster, investigators are checking if a 4.4 magnitude earthquake reported by the Geological Survey caused the landslide. The event likely involved an "avalanche" of ice and rock tearing down into the Lhende Khola River.
- Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of California, reported the event "was probably seismic energy released by a landslide." His group theorizes a rock landslide created a rapidly moving, water-logged mix of sediment, ice, and rock.
- Nepal remains vulnerable to "glacial lake outbursts," where melting glacier-formed lakes burst through dams, sending debris cascading down valleys. Tom Robinson, a lecturer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, noted these dams are no different to constructed ones.
- Climate change often plays a role in these monsoon-fueled events, as glacier ice loss rates in the Hindu Kush Himalaya have doubled since 2000, creating enormous risks for the nearly 2 million people living downstream of them.
21 Articles
21 Articles
The deadly floods that hit Nepal this Wednesday were probably caused, at least in part, by the release of a huge block of ice from a glacier, which has sunk thousands of meters down the valley, according to an initial assessment made by a group of geologists and glaciologists. The phenomenon is known as an avalanche of ice.
Nepal has recorded a flood that has killed, disappeared, injured and damaged property, but what is a flood?The sudden increase in the cause of the Bhote Koshi River has left about 100 dead and hundreds missing.The flood would have been caused by a collapse that impacted the cause of the river from a magnitude earthquake 4.4.What is a flood?A flood is a natural one characterized by a violent and sudden increase of water, which by its characterist…
The deadly flood that occurred on Wednesday near Nepal's border with Tibet could have occurred after the bottom of a glacier fell on top of the...
A deadly sudden flood on Wednesday near Nepal's border with Tibet could have erupted when the bottom of a glacier broke loose and crashed in front of the bottom of the valley, hundreds of meters below, experts said, citing satellite images from Planet Labs.Continue reading...
From the epicenter of the earthquake to the avalanche, the places of the disaster
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