Catastrophic Himalayan Glacial Avalanche Triggers Deadly Flash Floods on Nepal-Tibet Border

The wave came without warning. A massive torrent of mud, water, and ice tore through buildings, swept away buses, shattered bridges, and engulfed people who tried to flee but were overtaken by its destructive force.

By Wednesday, at least 160 people had been killed and hundreds more were missing along the border between Nepal and Tibet, a rugged region of lush, green river gorges surrounded by the world’s highest peaks in the snowy Himalayas.

Initial assessments by geologists and glaciologists indicated that an enormous chunk of ice—approximately 2,000 feet wide—had broken off a glacier at an altitude of 17,000 feet and plunged thousands of feet into the river valley below. As it fell, the avalanche pulverized itself into a fast-moving barrage of ice and rock that crushed everything in its path.

“The bottom looks like a bomb exploded—it’s just deposits from the broken-up glacier,” said Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, who studied satellite imagery of the disaster zone.

Shaking in the area, initially recorded as a 4.4-magnitude earthquake, was actually caused by the landslide itself, according to the United States Geological Survey. The shaking ultimately registered at a magnitude of 5.2, the agency said.

Nepali officials confirmed they had received no advanced warning before violent floods of water and mud, unleashed by the avalanche, crashed through villages along the Bhotekoshi River, where thousands of residents live.

“There was no rain in Nepal, so we were not expecting anything like this,” said Narendra Pariyar, the chief district officer of Rasuwa, one of the affected areas.

As many as 391 tourists, including 291 foreigners, have been reported missing in Nepal, according to a statement from the country’s tourism board. The missing include more than 100 visitors from India, a dozen Britons, and at least three Americans. Citizens of Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and South Africa were also among the unaccounted.

Surveillance video from the Gyirong port of entry, on the border between Nepal and the Tibet region of China, showed dozens of people running away moments before a massive mudslide obliterated a large building, subsequently engulfing the people and the camera recording the scene.

A second video from the border crossing captured another crowd sprinting down a road seconds before a titanic blast of mud swept away buses parked nearby, knocked down a building, and engulfed everything in sight.

The Nepali police reported at least 157 deaths within the country. Additionally, at least 19 bridges and 24 miles of road, along with schools and hydropower plants, were destroyed, according to Nepali officials.

Chinese officials reported three deaths in Tibet, although the toll there is expected to rise. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua noted “significant” casualties at the Gyirong port of entry.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, ordered local authorities to “make every effort” to search for and rescue missing residents.

The disaster compounds the challenges confronting Nepal’s recently elected government, led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, a former rapper and mayor who is 36 years old and rose to power through a youth-led protest movement last year.

As rescue efforts commenced, the Nepali Army announced it had mobilized 12 helicopters, established a temporary hospital in the flood zone, and evacuated at least 25 seriously injured individuals to the capital, Kathmandu. Nepal’s education minister, Sasmit Pokharel, stated that the country had appealed for assistance from its larger neighbors, China and India.

The largest group of missing individuals, at least 100, were from India, according to Nepali and Indian officials. Many had been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, revered by many Hindus as the spiritual home of the god Shiva.

The influential Indian spiritual guru and entrepreneur known as Sadhguru stated that 77 people, on tours organized by his foundation, had been at an immigration center on the Nepal-Tibet border when the floodwaters struck.

“There has been no official information on the whereabouts of any of the people who were at the immigration office,” he wrote on social media. “We are working with the authorities to see if we can get to the location and stand ready to be part of the rescue efforts.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India announced on social media that he had expressed his condolences to his Nepali counterpart, Mr. Shah, and would provide humanitarian assistance as needed. The Indian Embassy in Nepal confirmed it was coordinating with Nepal on rescue and relief efforts.

“The people of India stand in solidarity with their sisters and brothers in Nepal at this difficult time,” Mr. Modi said.

Scientists indicated that warming temperatures caused by climate change may have accelerated the glacier’s collapse, though they cautioned that it was too early to determine a precise cause. Across the rapidly warming Himalayas, melting glaciers are creating dangerous new conditions where avalanches can trigger widespread destruction.

In 2021, a Himalayan glacier broke off and caused major flooding in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing more than 100 people.

“This is one of the most devastating floods I can remember seeing in this region,” said Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, an expert in atmospheric and water processes at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He added that the disaster served as a “brutal reminder” for those living in Himalayan valleys that climate change means “events like this may happen again.”

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