A global learn about has investigated the reasons and affects of the devastating flood crisis within the Himalayas in October 2023, which destroyed huge spaces alongside and surrounding the Teesta River in Sikkim, India.
A analysis staff from 9 nations, together with researchers from the College of Zurich (UZH), analyzed the advanced drivers, reasons and penalties of this flood cascade and reconstructed the precise time of its onset.
Their learn about is revealed within the magazine Science.
On 3 October 2023, roughly 14.7 million cubic meters of frozen moraine subject matter collapsed into South Lhonak Lake, triggering a tsunami-like affect wave as much as 20 meters excessive. The following glacial lake outburst breached the moraine and launched roughly 50 million cubic meters of water—sufficient to fill 20,000 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools.
The flood led to large harm alongside the 385-kilometer-long valley, washing away some 270 million cubic meters of sediment and inundating infrastructure equivalent to hydroelectric energy vegetation at the Teesta River. A minimum of 55 other people have been killed, and 70 others have been reported lacking.
“This tournament is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of excessive mountain areas to the results of weather exchange,” says Christian Huggel, co-author of the learn about and head of the Atmosphere and Local weather analysis staff at UZH. “The thawing of permafrost and the instability of rock, ice and moraine constructions pose primary dangers.”
Top-resolution far flung sensing information is a very powerful
The usage of cutting-edge clinical strategies, the researchers analyzed the dynamics and results of the flood crisis intimately. Top-resolution satellite tv for pc photographs, virtual elevation fashions and numerical simulations equipped an in depth reconstruction of the development.
Seismic information helped the researchers to resolve the precise time of the moraine cave in, whilst geomorphological analyses quantified the amount of water and sediment launched. The combo of satellite tv for pc generation and bodily fashions equipped a complete image of the crisis and its far-reaching penalties.
“Using high-resolution far flung sensing information was once a very powerful to working out the advanced processes and cascading results of the flood intimately,” explains first writer Ashim Sattar, a former postdoctoral researcher at UZH and now an assistant professor on the Indian Institute of Era in Bhubaneswar. “Collaboration amongst researchers from other disciplines was once key in gauging the total extent of this tournament.”
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Concrete dam of the Teesta III hydropower plant utterly destroyed by way of the flood crisis. Credit score: College of Zurich
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Top-resolution satellite tv for pc photographs of South Lonak Lake sooner than and after the flood crisis. Credit score: College of Zurich
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Numerical modeling of the glacial lake outburst flood at South Lonak Lake, Sikkim, India, appearing the modern flooding of the Teesta River valley (most sensible) and the noticed and modeled erosion throughout the lake outburst flood (backside). Credit score: Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.ads2659
Pressing want for early caution techniques
The flood now not simplest destroyed infrastructure, together with 5 hydroelectric energy vegetation, but additionally led to large erosion and sedimentation, with critical penalties for farmers and native companies.
“Our findings spotlight the pressing want for early caution techniques and global cooperation to handle such demanding situations,” emphasizes Sattar. The learn about additionally presentations that the instability of the moraines were glaring years sooner than the development, with shifts of as much as 15 meters consistent with 12 months. This underlines the will for coordinated tracking of important excessive mountain spaces and extra preventive measures that can have mitigated the wear.
The researchers emphasize that an identical failures are more likely to turn out to be extra commonplace sooner or later as emerging temperatures building up the chance of glacial lake outbursts. “The case of South Lhonak Lake is a reminder to take weather dangers in mountain areas international extra severely,” says Huggel.
Sattar provides, “We want higher menace modeling and review, in addition to powerful adaptation methods, to reduce long term failures.”
The staff additionally requires more potent legislation of hydropower construction in high-risk spaces, higher tracking of glacial lakes, and the combination of early caution techniques. The learn about supplies necessary insights that may lend a hand to higher get ready native communities for the rising demanding situations of weather exchange.
Additional info:
Ashim Sattar et al, The Sikkim flood of October 2023: drivers, reasons and affects of a multi-hazard cascade, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.ads2659
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Local weather exchange will increase menace of successive pure hazards within the Himalayas (2025, January 30)
retrieved 31 January 2025
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