Experts point to climate change setting off Uttarakhand glacier burst
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A deluge following a glacial soften incident within the Himalayas on Sunday flooded the Rishiganga river in Uttarakhand and washed away two hydroelectric power projects.
There had been issues that the surplus water would additional journey downstream to the river Alaknanda and threaten dwellings in addition to hydro tasks on the river.
Environmental consultants have attributed the Nanda Devi glacial soften to world warming. Glacier retreat and permafrost thaw are projected to lower the steadiness of mountain slopes and enhance the quantity and space of glacier lakes, in accordance to the most recent evaluation studies of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
There can be excessive confidence that the quantity and space of glacier lakes will proceed to enhance in most areas within the coming many years, and new lakes will develop nearer to steep and probably unstable mountain partitions the place lake outbursts may be extra simply triggered.
Farooque Azam, Assistant Professor, Glaciology and Hydrology division, IIT Indore, mentioned such a glacial burst was an “extremely rare event”.
“Satellite and Google Earth images do not show a glacial lake near the region, but there’s a possibility that there may be a water pocket in the region. Water pockets are lakes inside the glaciers, which may have erupted leading to this event. We need further analysis, weather reports and data to confirm if this indeed was the case,” he mentioned.
Climate change has pushed erratic climate patterns like elevated snowfall and rainfall, hotter winters has led to the melting of quite a lot of snow. The thermal profile of ice, say consultants, was growing. Earlier the temperature of ice ranged from -6 to -20 diploma C, it’s now -2 making it extra prone to melting.