As glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes, 15 million people across the globe live under the threat of a sudden and deadly outburst flood, a new study finds.
Chunks of ice break off the Perito Moreno Glacier, in Lake Argentina, at Los Glaciares National Park, near El Calafate, in Argentina's Patagonia region, March 10, 2016.
One of the more devastating floods was in Peru in 1941 and it killed between 1,800 and 6,000 people. A 2020 glacial lake outburst flood in British Columbia, Canada, caused a tsunami of water about 330 feet high, but no one was hurt. A 2017 glacial outburst flood in Nepal, triggered by a landslide, was captured on video by German climbers.
“We had glacier lake outburst floods in the past that have killed many many thousands of people in a single catastrophic flooding event,” said study co-author Tom Robinson, a disaster risk scientist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “And with climate change glaciers are melting so these lakes are getting bigger, potentially getting more unstable.
“In a warming world we certainly expect more and larger glacial lakes,” Shugar said in an email. “But the threat that these lakes might pose critically depends on where people are living and what their vulnerabilities might be.” After the deadly Andes flood in the 1940s that region “was sort of a leader” in working on glacial flood outburst threats, but in the last decade or so, High Mountain Asia has taken over because of the high population, said University of Dayton geology professor Umesh Haritashya, who wasn’t part of the studies.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Highly-anticipated San Antonio cebichería Leche de Tigre to open its doors Feb. 24The new cebichería will also house a bar dedicated to Peru's national spirit, Pisco. SanAntonio SATX SanAntonioTX SanAntonioFood SanAntonioRestaurants
Weiterlesen »
Dozens dead in Peru after rain-fueled mudslidesLocal officials appealed for heavy machinery to be sent in to clear debris blocking three kilometers (nearly two miles) of an important road. Civil defense officials said an estimated 630 homes wer…
Weiterlesen »
Steady rains set off mudslides that kill at least 36 in PeruLIMA, Peru (AP) — Landslides triggered by steady rains swept mud, water and rocks into several villages in southern Peru, killing at least 36 people, authorities said Monday. Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official in the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality in Camana province, told local radio RPP that 36 bodies had been recovered in a remote sector called Miski.
Weiterlesen »
At least 8 dead in southern Peru landslide, more missingA landslide triggered by strong rains in Peru killed at least eight people in the country's southern Arequipa region, national emergency services said on Monday.
Weiterlesen »
Steady rains set off mudslides that kill at least 36 in PeruLocal officials have appealed for heavy machinery to be sent in to clear debris blocking nearly two miles of an important road.
Weiterlesen »