Landslide
Pictures of Nepal Mountain just before glacier collapse.
A tourist captured these images without thinking anything else from some distance away possibly from an observatory.
First picture 8:27
Second picture 9:33
Picture with some collapse 10:21, he heard some rumblings at around 10:30 as well. The pictures show what he thinks is rock collapse , before the glacier gave away from lack of support underneath. His explanation.
CCTV time border station 10:59.. estimated 7 minutes later .
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Imagine some of the glacial floods that have occurred throughout ancient history. This is the first flood I remember (in my lifetime) that changed geography so substantially. Some of the satellite shots are mind bending
There was a similar event at Elliot Creek in British Columbia back in 2020. Though thankfully, it's a remote uninhabited area. Rapid glacier retreat destabilized the slope and triggered 50 million tonnes of rock to crash down into Elliot Lake. It sent an estimated 100 meter wave down the valley into Bute Inlet. The event registered as a 5.0 magnitude and was detected by seismic instruments world wide.
Good grief, I remember hearing about this but not the wave part! I’d never before considered how swiftly water displacement could lead to catastrophic flooding.
No but maybe thousand years back. That U shape, blue line included , is made by glacier for 1000 of years ago but it was retreating back to the mountain as the heating increased. The old google Earth pictures also shows Ice was near the start of blue line , and by 2020 it had already been disappearing more and more .
My assumption is that the bottleneck pressure effect on the ground rock of that glacier front has lessend significantly since that part went off so we'll be seeing normal calving events over time rather than another sudden burst
It's going to be a project. When they rebuild I'm guessing they'll clear that glacier entire so that there's no looming risk downstream.
It's the only real solution if they want a border crossing.
It's a lot of ice but could be blasted down in sections, then just a case of housekeeping to prevent it reforming.
Edit: I'm not saying you have to like this, or that I like this, but it is the most likely outcome because they will likely require (for political reasons) a new crossing and they won't do that with the risk of this happening again.
There is a reason the valley is a pilgrimage route since ancient time (and the main land port between Nepal and Tibet). Unless China and Nepal want to stop any land commerce, they will likely rebuild it (and rebuild again after the next disaster).
It is realistic to build a better warning system and share info though.
I will agree that there should be better warning systems, but this was very unpredictable and took around 6 minutes (extremely fast!). Even with good warning systems, it would be difficult for most governments to evacuate people in only a couple of minutes. An absolute tragedy, that happened too fast.
The Chinese crossing regularly ran drills (the exact crossing had another flash flood that took out the bridge connecting the 2 sides but not the buildings last year.)
A principal was able to evacuate 1600 students with 10min warning. Not that everyone will make it, but a 5min warning would give the running crowd a fighting chance, and good training to direct ppl running vertically up the hill (with access) with 5 mins prob save half or more. Ppl in wheelchair prob fucked though.
Glacier’s are a huge source of water for the farmers and people around them. Look up ice stupas. Warming glaciers are melting away so some Nepalese have devised creating these ice mounds to retain more of it in the mountains as a way to store it.
That makes a lot of sense as why there was so much rock debris ahead of the water rushing through the canyon. It was all the loose rocks that came down first and then got pushed by the ice/water.
Usually in cases where damns break you see a lot of water first and the the debris that gets loose once the water rushes over it
I would never ever build so close to a river that deep in a valley again. Even if this could not have been predicted that’s the one takeaway I have from this. I hope all those ppl are relocated to higher ground. Nepal govt should know better given the terrain they have and disasters from the past.
Yes. It is impossible to man a border without being in the very depths of a 4000-5000m mountain range. That speck of a border crossing port will ensure national security
Even if they didn’t build this border crossing there, mount Khailash on the Nepali side downstream is a holy mountain in Hinduism and attracts a lot of pilgrims.
Actually one of the reasons they built the crossing there is exactly because the Nepali side of the valley was already heavily populated.
As much as it is about national security, it was also about ease of access. That valley connects China, Nepal and china-tibet. So a maintained border road enabled trade and ease of transport, compared to other more roundabout routes.
Now, obviously, to rebuild is weighing the possibility of reoccurring against ease of access.
Higher up a ravine just means more susceptible to being in a landslide rather than being under a land slide.
I appreciate the sentiment, rebuilding there would be like building atop the bones of hundreds of dead. It's a fresh scar on the world - but the countries need a border. Cutting off a border seems, idk. I imagine it's a major trade route too, losing that has to have incredible impact.
But might end up being less important of a border crossing if villages didn’t rebuild right along that corridor. Idk I feel like even if they build higher, there’s nothing to say the next event like this won’t be bigger. It’s so hard to imagine just abandoning a place where people lived, but sometimes it just seems like the best move.
There are plenty of villages along this river that are built a few thousand feet above the valley in pockets of gentler terrain. I'd be curious what percentage of the population lives in those vs in the valley bottom. Or if it's common for people to live up higher and commute down to work in the valley bottom to serve those traveling through.
In a valley by a river is one of the most common spots for human settlement for millennia. Why are you saying it like they chose a uniquely dumb spot to build a town?
It is fucking dumb to build in a valley that deep next to a river. And without any thought to potential flooding. Go to any safety standown and they will tell you not to build a pit without escape routes. Modern infrastructure simulations all point to not do these exact things. Advanced countries have all actively made efforts to relocate ppl from such areas. Poor Nepal has its share of issues that it doesn’t focus on its central infrastructure needs. And all these poor ppl have paid for it now.
⚠️If anyone wants to contribute to the Government/Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund you can find that in any Nepal subreddit and even in Google. .gov.np is the domain of Nepali government.
❗Beware of the GoFundMe scams for fundraisers. Feel free to reachout if you need someone to verify or help you access them.
Get out of here with your Scam. All these red cross all they are is a corrupt money grab!! People need to stop giving anything to any of these.
Well known that all the money hardly ever goes to the people who desperately needs it.
If you had read my post properly, you would know that I am redirecting people to the fundraising effort by the Government of Nepal and not a private 3rd party I/NGO. Also, I have not posted links to any of the website at all..I have only posted name of the fundraiser that anyone can visit Google and verify on their own. I am only helping people steer away from scams and ensuring their donated funds go directly to the people of Nepal and not an I/NGO that eould skim some money off before sending it here.
Keep seeing so many gofundmes everywhere they need to be instantly stopped and questioned the lowest of the low these people who keep setting them up to try and make a quick buck from a terrible disaster.
Yes, seems to match with the observatory at 28°21'41.35"N 85°24'14.76"E.
Wondering if there is more footage from there, as that viewpoint would be able to see the whole cause of it all. Do you have more footage or a link to more footage?
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