Living in the shadow of the world’s majestic ice-covered mountains is always risky, but the devastating floods that carved a path of destruction on the Nepal-China border this week demonstrate how life has become more unpredictable and more dangerous for the millions of people around the world who live downstream from these mountains.
Nepal is home to towering, jagged mountains, with steep slopes leading into narrow valleys carved by mighty rivers. Its stunning scenery attracts many tourists. It’s also dangerous.
The country, located in the rapidly warming Himalayas, has long been a hotspot for floods and landslides. But what happened Wednesday was “much larger than anything we’ve experienced recently,” said Prashant Baral, a cryosphere analyst at Nepal’s climate change agency ICIMOD.
A huge chunk of glacier, about 600 feet wide, was torn apart by a landslide on Mount Langtang Lirung in northern Nepal, according to satellite analysis. It sent a deadly mix of ice, water, rock, sediment and car-sized boulders 7,000 feet into the air, causing shaking so powerful that it was initially mistaken for an earthquake.
The torrent, described by some as “liquid concrete”, rushed through a narrow gorge, destroying homes, buildings, power plants, bridges and roads.
Learn more about the increased risks of living downstream from a glacier.
