Glacier Collapse on Nepal–Tibet Border Leaves Thousands Dead or Missing

Overview

• A massive section of glacier broke away on 26 August and sent a fast wall of water, ice, rock and mud down valleys along the Nepal–Tibet border, destroying villages, roads and border posts.
• Nepalese authorities report more than 1,200 dead and roughly 4,000–4,700 missing while Chinese reports list dozens of dead and hundreds unaccounted for, and hundreds of foreign nationals remain missing or displaced.
• Search teams are focused on hydropower tunnels and underground chambers where officials say dozens of workers may still be alive and are using pumps, breathing systems, sniffer dogs and heavy machinery to reach them.
• China reopened the G216 route to Gyirong on 2 September to allow heavy equipment into the disaster zone and Nepal has announced plans to rebuild an early-warning network of seismic sensors, cameras and a satellite link on the border.
• Scientists including the USGS and GFZ concluded the recorded seismic energy came from the glacier collapse not from an earthquake, and the UN estimates about 2.2 million tonnes of debris that will slow rescue and recovery and raise longer-term hazard concerns.