Tag: glacier

A new and first-of-its-kind study from an international team of scientists led by UK’s Newcastle University has found that nearly 15 million people around the globe are at risk from deadly flooding caused by glacial lakes, with around half of those exposed concentrated in just four countries: India, China, Peru, and Pakistan. The phenomenon of glacial lake flooding is formally known as a “glacial lake outburst flood”, or GLOF. As temperatures around the planet continue to rise due to climate change, glaciers are melting at a rapid pace into glacial lakes. If a lake rises too high or the surrounding land and ice give away, the lake could “burst”, sending water and debris rushing down mountains. Living downstream from a glacial lake is incredibly dangerous for this reason.