What Likely Triggered the Nepal Flood

The floodwaters that killed more than 300 people in Nepal and China last Wednesday were probably unleashed by a landslide from a collapsing glacier, according to a rapid analysis by a team of geoscientists — a harbinger of the dangers posed by melting ice in a fast-warming world.

High-resolution images taken by satellite monitoring company Planet Labs show the site of the apparent landslide high in the Himalayas, close to the Nepal-China border. In the "before" image, a glacier can be seen looming some 4,000 feet above a narrow valley, emptying into the meandering Lhende River.

Afterward, the glacier appears smaller by about 2 million square feet — equal to the area of about 25 professional soccer fields. The valley is strewn with ice and mud. And the river is swollen beyond its banks, submerging the surrounding vegetation beneath murky brown floodwaters.

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