How a collapsing glacier may have caused the catastrophic Nepal floods

A devastating series of deadly flash floods has destroyed villages in parts of Nepal and Tibet, with hundreds missing, including some Canadians, as experts say a falling glacier likely triggered a chain reaction of catastrophic events that could get worse in the coming days. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 5.2 seismic event occurred near the border between Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of China, on Aug. 26 at 8:37 a.m. local time.The event was initially reported as an earthquake, but additional analysis determined the seismic event was caused by a glacial collapse that is believed to have resulted in the flow of debris that caused “catastrophic impacts downstream.”“It is biblical — the amount of power when we get ice falling large distances. The amount of kinetic energy is really enormous. And when it hits the water, it just produces these incredible floods downstream. It’s hard to imagine that devastation,” says Kent Moore, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto. Story continues below advertisement “A lot of these glaciers are what are called hanging glaciers, and so they’re kind of on very steep slopes and they’re frozen onto ...