A glacier broke off, generating a 5.2 magnitude tremor that ended in a water avalanche no one saw coming (though it’s still under investigation). An earthquake shook the border between Nepal and Tibet.
It’s believed that a massive block of ice about 600 meters wide broke off from a glacier at over 5,200 meters high. The block fell nearly a kilometer vertically, crashed into the valley floor, and shattered into pieces. The detachment was so powerful that it triggered an earthquake. In seconds, ice, rock, and water turned into a lethal mass that rushed down the Lhende Khola riverbed.
That mass blocked the river. Water built up behind the blockage, and when it gave way, it released all at once. A wall of mud, debris, and water surged down the valley, sweeping away everything in its path: villages, bridges, roads, hydroelectric plants, and anything else it encountered along the way. In a matter of minutes, villages in Nepal’s Rasuwa district and the Gyirong border post in Tibet were buried.
It hadn’t rained heavily in Nepal. No one expected a flood like this. The toll so far: at least 95 confirmed dead in Nepal, hundreds missing (many of them tourists and pilgrims heading to Mount Kailash), and also victims on the Chinese side.
The images are brutal: a brown river swallowing entire houses in seconds. Authorities warn that there could still be another surge, because part of the material is still blocking upstream waters.
