The Himalayas, with their steep slopes studded with rapidly melting glaciers, are high risk, but areas across much of the world carry the risk of glacier-related disasters, including one tropical region that is at particular risk, experts told Live Science.
The recent Nepal-Tibet disaster unfolded when a large mass of bedrock and glacial ice detached from the mountainside. The ice and rock accelerated rapidly, reaching speeds of 500 feet per second (150 meters per second) as it dropped 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) directly into the Lhende River in Tibet, according to the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, D.C.
Glaciers in Nepal have been shrinking, potentially weakening the mountain slopes. (Image credit: NICHOLAS SHEARMAN via Getty Images)Carey noted that this disaster was exacerbated by a combination of factors.
Risks in the High Mountains Asia
The Himalayas and the wider High Mountains Asia — an area that includes parts of China, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — are among the major epicenters for future glacier-related disasters, experts said. More than 9 million people in this region are at risk from glacial outbursts — when a lake bursts through or overtops its dam and drains rapidly — a 2023 Nature study found.
Compounding this, any water, ice or debris can be channeled down the steep slopes into narrow valleys, meaning water and material can move quickly and travel huge distances, potentially inundating the downstream valleys where many people live.
The Himalayas are also among the most seismically active places on Earth, and glaciers are frequently weakened by tremors, which can trigger avalanches, glacial lake outburst floods or glacial collapse.
Glacial meltwater can also act as a lubricant as it seeps into the bed of the glacier, which, in turn, can facilitate sliding, Bethan Davies, a professor of glaciology at Newcastle University in the U.K., told Live Science in an email.
And with some of the biggest dams in the world going up in seismically active regions of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, new hazards are being introduced, Live Science previously reported.
"In Peru in 1970, 6,000 people died when an earthquake shook loose part of the glacier and rock on Mount Huascarán," Carey said. "The same slope had failed in 1962, causing a massive rock-ice landslide that buried the community of Ranrahirca, killing about 2,000 people in an event similar to the one recently in Nepal-China."
Lake Palcacocha, in Peru, is drained to reduce the risk of a glacial lake outburst flood. (Image credit: LUKA GONZALES via Getty Images)This threat spans the Andes. A 2023 study in the journal Nature noted that the number of glacial lakes in the Andes has risen by 93% in the past two decades — much more than the 37% increase in the High Mountains Asia.
In North America, meanwhile, Alaska is at risk for landslides and lake outbursts as glaciers collapse and retreat. Although many of the at-risk glaciers aren't in highly populated areas, there's a risk that glacial lakes could burst their banks and inundate the state's Suicide Basin, which frequently drains into and floods Juneau, Carey noted.
How to reduce the risks
Better monitoring of glaciers and their lakes in at-risk regions can help mitigate the risks in the short and medium term, experts told Live Science.
"The Birch Glacier was well monitored, and when it started to show signs of movement, the village below was evacuated," Davies said. Just one person — a 64-year-old shepherd who was outside the evacuation zone — died.
Glaciers across the planet are losing ice rapidly due to climate change. (Image credit: C3S/ECMWF/WGMS)Carey noted that when a potential hazard is identified, authorities can take other steps, such as draining a swollen lake to try reducing the risk.
But disasters can still occur even with monitoring, draining and scientific assessment.
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Glaciers across North America and Europe have lost an 'unprecedented' amount of ice in the past 4 yearsTrio of stripy glaciers merging in 'Earth's highest battleground' are part of a major anomaly scientists don't fully understand — Earth from spaceThe 'Doomsday Glacier' is poised to lose its ice shelf this year. An Antarctic researcher explains what that means for global sea levels
In the long term, slowing global warming is the most sweeping way to reduce the risk of glacial collapse.
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