Tag: Glaciers

Nepal’s Gen Z Is Taking on the World’s Polluters Over Climate Disasters

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When Tashi Lhazom was 11, a glacial lake overflowed and inundated her home in a high Himalayan valley. Of her family’s hundreds of shaggy yaks, only two survived. In 2025, another flash flood cascaded into the village, the result, scientists say, of melting permafrost on a warming planet. Such natural disasters spurred Ms. Lhazom’s political awakening. When Nepali young people protested a year ago, she joined other climate activists on the forefront of a Gen Z revolution that eventually ushered in a youth-dominated government in March. Last month, when a…

Disaster Experts Say Nepal Glacier Collapse Was Difficult to Predict

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It was a wall of water and mud traveling at such speed that it engulfed buildings in seconds. In the wake of the Nepal flood disaster, questions were being asked about whether the deadly torrent could have been predicted or detected quicker to give communities downstream more time to evacuate. Geologists say they believe the flash floods in Nepal and Tibet were set off by a dual high-altitude landslide and glacial avalanche that unleashed huge volumes of water. Disaster experts say such events are difficult to forecast. Most monitoring and…

Nepal-Tibet flash flood: what we know so far on day three

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Nepal and China both warned of new flooding ⁠risks in the Himalayas because of two lakes that have developed along debris-choked rivers on either side of their border. Nepal’s disaster authority said water levels were rising in a lake formed by debris clogging a flooded site and ‌that it was at risk of bursting its banks. It did not name the specific site. Chinese authorities warned that a newly formed lake at the confluence of the Tsogyal and the Purupqiangzangbu rivers was overflowing and might burst. More than 500 foreign…

Nepal-Tibet flash flood: what we know so far

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An earthquake was initially thought to be the cause; but by Thursday the US Geological Survey (USGS) said “a glacial collapse” was responsible for the disaster. “This event was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. Additional analysis of nearby seismic stations, long period seismic waves, and satellite imagery led to the determination that the seismic event was instead a glacial collapse and debris flow, and that no earthquake had occurred.” The USGS first reported the seismic jolt early on Wednesday about 66km (41 miles) north of Kathmandu, near the…