"It's No Surprise If It Bursts at Any Time": 12-Year Warning Ignored as Nepal Flood Brings Documentary Back Into Spotlight

"Glacial Tsunami" Caused by Melting Glaciers Brought Into Focus
This Nepal Flood Attributed to an "Ice Avalanche"

A major loss of life has occurred following a massive flood in the Nepalese Himalayan mountain region, drawing attention to an EBS documentary that warned of a 'glacial flood' in Nepal 12 years ago.

Glaciers melting in the Himalayas. Screenshot from EBS documentary

On August 27, EBS uploaded an episode titled 'The Only Earth - Climate Change Special: Himalayan Catastrophe, Glacial Tsunami,' which originally aired on August 29, 2014, to its dedicated EBS Documentary YouTube channel. Released immediately after the 'Nepal Flood,' this video garnered over 2.6 million views within just one day.

This documentary focuses on Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) in the Himalayan region. As climate change causes glaciers to melt, glacial lakes become larger, and when the natural embankments that hold them back collapse, enormous amounts of water and sediment rush downstream. The production team likened this phenomenon to a 'glacial tsunami.'

In fact, Nepal's Imja Lake, located at an altitude of 500 meters, grew to a width of 580 meters, a length of 2.3 kilometers, and a depth of 100 meters in just about 50 years as melting glaciers fed into it. The lake was originally just a small pond.

Residents living downstream of Imja Lake said, "It's not surprising if the lake floods at any time," and lived in constant fear that a 'glacial tsunami' could strike at any moment. The village head commented, "We see glaciers melting and avalanches taking place every day," and added, "It's only natural for glacial lakes to burst."

Glacial tsunamis have already occurred 64 times in total across countries traversed by the Himalayas, namely Nepal, China, and Pakistan. The breakdown is: China with 29 cases, Nepal with 22, Pakistan with 9, and Bhutan with 4 cases.

Pradeep Mul, head of the glacier team at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, stated, "Of 466 glacial lakes, 21 have been identified as potentially dangerous," warning that further expansion of glacial lakes caused by climate change might lead to even more glacial tsunamis in the future. Rishi Sharma, Deputy Minister of Nepal’s Ministry of Environment and Meteorology, also pointed out, "Although the lakes are located at over 5,000 meters above sea level, residential areas and infrastructure sit much lower, so any trouble in the upper reaches naturally impacts those below."

Flood scenes near the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower plant construction site in the Rasuwa region of mid-northern Nepal, captured on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from the Chinese border control office. Captured from X (formerly Twitter)

However, there is analysis suggesting that the recent flood in Nepal differed somewhat from a typical 'glacial tsunami.' According to AP, Bloomberg, and other sources, the disaster appears to have been caused when bedrock beneath the glacier of Mount Langtang Lirung (elevation 7,234 meters) in Bagmati Province, eastern Nepal, near the Tibetan border, collapsed. As a result, a massive glacier located at around 5,200 meters above sea level broke off and rushed down to the valley floor, resulting in what is believed to be an 'ice avalanche.'

As the glacier mass tumbled down, debris and falling rocks were swept along and blocked the Ande Khola River, a tributary of the Boteko Shigang. The meltwater from the ice quickly accumulated and surged downstream. While the 2014 documentary warned primarily of GLOFs, where meltwater collects in a lake and then breaks through an embankment, officials explain that in this instance, it was the falling mass of ice itself which directly caused the flood.

Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the Nepal flood was unrelated to climate change. Experts pointed out that decades of climate change have destabilized the glaciers, soil, and bedrock of the high Himalayas, leading to this disaster.

The death toll from this disaster stands at 472, with a total of 1,535 people missing across Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.