Monitoring Glacial Lakes Before They Collapse
Glacial Lake Imja, Nepal (credit: Wiki-commons)
Glacial lakes are good indicators of environmental change and research at Mount Everest is a natural laboratory for new research and findings. The University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR) has been monitoring the status of Nepal's Imja Lake for more than a decade. The Institute's research aims to better understand the threat to people and villages downstream if the unstable rock damed lake were to collapse and produce a major flood.
According to INSTAAR, an aquatic (bathymetric) survey of Imja revealed that the lake holds nearly double the volume of water previously estimated. The team also conducted the first ground-penetrating radar survey of the area's terminal moraine revealing a previously unknown ice core. Risk-modeling and hazard management scenarios were developed to inform communities and provide mitigation plans at the moraine to reduce the risk of its collapse should the core melt. A video illustrates the difficultly of conducting research at elevations exceeding 16,000 feet (5,000 meters) in the Himalayas.
The importance of this environmental research is becoming more and more relevant as the recent collapse of glacial lakes, that triggered a massive flood in the Mount Everest region, showed.
According to the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a devastating flood struck the village of Thame, in the Khumbu region of Nepal. The flood erupted when two glacial lakes near the village burst releasing their water. An initial assessment of the damage showed multiple properties were destroyed including a school, a health clinic, several hotels, and multiple villager's homes. Thame is a prominent village in the Mount Everest region and home to the famous Sherpa mountaineering guides. Early warnings to radios and cell phones alerted villagers of the pending disaster who escaped the massive flood by running up the slopes behind the town. Handheld phone videos captured the town's destruction as it happened.
The mountain research organization had previously released an assessment of the hazards posed by glacial lakes and concluded, that glaciers, snow, and permafrost in the Himalayas were: “undergoing unprecedented and largely irreversible changes over human timescales, primarily driven by climate change and are some of the most vulnerable to these changes in the world.”
As the global climate continues to heat and weather patterns change in mountain systems everywhere, glacial studies are more vital than ever for threat predictions and resilience preparations. WHB