Experts believe a glacier collapse might have caused the catastrophic floods at the border between Nepal and Tibet that killed at least 270 people and left more than 1,000 missing. While initial reports…
The reason the cause is in debate is because the volume of water was unexpected.
Glaciers are frozen. Glacial collapse means the frozen glacier collapses - like a frozen landslide. Glacial dam outburst is when water that’s been trapped by the glacier suddenly bursts out. The seismic activity around the event is a confusing data point, because it was initially thought to be a rock face collapse that caused the glacier to fall.
It’s not so much a ‘duh’ as they didn’t think there was that much water under these glaciers. Now scientists are trying to figure out what they don’t know.
The reason the cause is in debate is because the volume of water was unexpected.
Glaciers are frozen. Glacial collapse means the frozen glacier collapses - like a frozen landslide. Glacial dam outburst is when water that’s been trapped by the glacier suddenly bursts out. The seismic activity around the event is a confusing data point, because it was initially thought to be a rock face collapse that caused the glacier to fall.
It’s not so much a ‘duh’ as they didn’t think there was that much water under these glaciers. Now scientists are trying to figure out what they don’t know.
Edit: New photos are available, and drone footage during the torrent was also found.
It is now believed that a landslide under the glacier caused the collapse.
This excellent video by geologist Shawn Willsey shows the additional photos and drone footage, and includes highly plausible speculation about why there was so much more water than expected.
Tonight, at nine: Scientists trying to figure out what they don’t know.
I know, it’s kind of silly to say, but people are acting like it’s self-evident, but it’s sort of not.