By Phil Baker – NYA
Scientists investigating this week’s deadly flash flooding in Nepal and Tibet believe a landslide, triggered when a large section of bedrock beneath a Himalayan glacier gave way, combined with a chunk of glacial ice breaking off and crashing down the mountainside, unleashing the disaster. Researchers point to a broader climate pattern: as global warming thaws the permafrost that has long stabilized rock and ice in the Himalayas, mountain slopes are becoming increasingly prone to this kind of catastrophic failure. However, experts caution that pinning the exact cause solely on climate change would be premature, noting that a mix of long-term warming trends and shorter-term factors, such as recent snowmelt, likely contributed, with fuller analysis still months away.