More than 157 people are dead and hundreds more are missing after a catastrophic flood tore through parts of Nepal on Wednesday, set off by a massive landslide high in the Himalayas that brought down part of a glacier and sent a wall of water crashing through valleys below.
The event registered as a 5.2 magnitude earthquake on seismographs around the world.
According to ABC News, Göran Ekström, a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, said the disaster began when a landslide in a Himalayan mountain pass took away a large glacier or parts of a glacier. When the rocks came down the mountain, they generated enormous heat, melting the glacier and producing the torrent that flooded communities below. Ekström described it as a "massive geophysical event."
He estimated the floodwaters were "outrageously high," possibly reaching between 130 and 160 feet, and that the water may have moved as fast as 44 miles per hour through the valley.
At least 157 people have been confirmed killed and 75 others wounded as of Wednesday evening, according to local authorities. A total of 384 people have gone missing from the affected area, including 291 foreigners and 93 Nepali citizens, according to the Nepal Tourism Board. At least 47 American tourists are among the missing.
British newspapers on Thursday reported dozens of UK citizens are also feared dead. The Daily Mail described the disaster as apocalyptic and said more than 30 Britons are missing, including a schoolgirl. The Times reported that security video captured people running for their lives as raging waters engulfed buildings. Nepal's prime minister was quoted by the Daily Telegraph saying the tragedy has left an entire nation "shocked and deeply distressed."
The mountainous region near the Nepal-China border is a popular destination for trekkers and pilgrims, which accounts for the high number of foreign nationals among the missing.
Ekström noted that climate change is accelerating the melting of ice and glaciers globally. While events like this can happen without climate change, he said it is possible that climate change makes them worse. "In general, these landslides in these mountainous regions are becoming more frequent, that has been determined, and that is linked to the melting of glaciers," he said.
Search and rescue operations were continuing as of Thursday morning.
