In the shadow of Mount Everest, the town of Thame in eastern Nepal was hit by a devastating flood in late September. This is the second time in as many months that people in Nepal have had to endure a catastrophic flood event.
What's happening?
In August, Thame was inundated after a glacial lake burst high in the nearby mountains above the town. The Thyanbo glacial lake sent water gushing down the mountainside, sweeping away the small village. According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the flood destroyed 14 properties, including a school, a health post, seven homes, and five hotels.
A little more than six weeks later, another flood hit Nepal, and fierce monsoon rains caused the country's worst flooding in several years. The disaster took the lives of at least 236 people in Kathmandu, the country's capital, as whole neighborhoods were submerged.
"There is no trace of our house... nothing is left," resident and local official Mingma Chiri Sherpa said, per Phys.org. "It took everything we owned."
Why is flooding from glacial lake outbursts important?
The August flooding event in Thame, a village home to several renowned Everest mountaineers, highlights our overheating planet's growing risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).
Several glacial lakes loom upstream of Thame. Satellite imagery from the European Space Agency's Copernicus earth observation program, dating back to 2017, reveals that these lakes have changed in size. Some lakes frequently contract and expand, which makes them especially susceptible to breaches.
According to a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, GLOFs threaten millions of people worldwide. "The continued ice loss and expansion of glacial lakes due to climate change, therefore, represents a globally important natural hazard that requires urgent attention if future loss of life from GLOF is to be minimised," the study noted.
What's being done about the increasing risk of glacial lake outburst floods?
The ICIMOD glacial lake outburst flood mitigation measures include reducing water levels by pumping or siphoning water and through controlled breaching. ICIMOD also stresses the importance of monitoring glacial lakes and implementing early warning systems when signs of potential flooding are detected.
Heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere are raising the risk of glacier lake outburst floods. A recently released report notes that glacier elevations have decreased and glacier melting has increased in our warming world. Reducing carbon pollution from dirty energy sources is imperative.
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