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Earth

Ruptured Tibetan glaciers triggered massive speedy avalanches

By Michael Marshall

22 January 2018

New Scientist Default Image

NASA

In 2016, two glaciers in Tibet collapsed triggering huge avalanches that caused widespread devastation. Such a collapse had only been seen once before, so the events suggested that glaciers break apart more frequently than anybody realised.

Andreas Kääb of the University of Oslo, Norway, and his colleagues have combined eyewitness reports with remote-sensing images and other data to better understand how the glaciers came to fall apart. They have also spotted the telltale signs of impending collapse, knowledge that could be used to warn people nearby.

The first glacier to give way was in the Aru Range on the…

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