The full extent of the deaths and damage caused by the enormous flash flood that swept down a river valley in Nepal and Tibet today won’t be clear for weeks. But initial analyses of satellite images and seismic data suggest that the collapse of a high glacier caused the disaster. We must adapt to climate change while also tackling the root cause As the glacier flowed over the cliff and moved down the steep slope, deep crevasses would have formed in the ice.
Warm weather in the past day or so may have melted a lot of snow and some glacier ice, with this liquid water weakening the glacier and causing the entire section flowing down the steep slope to collapse. That was enough for it to collapse.” The potential energy released as heat when millions of tonnes of ice fell a kilometre may have melted large quantities of it, producing enough liquid water to generate the huge flash floods. This is horrific,” Shugar says.
Global heating may have contributed to the Chamoli event, and to the collapse of a glacier above the village of Blatten in Switzerland in 2025. Steep glaciers can break for reasons unrelated to climate change, Shugar says, but an increase in the frequency of this kind of disaster points to global heating as a contributing factor.
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