Climate crisis could have contributed to landslide in India that killed 70, probe finds msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Research Article
The gap of water supply Demand and its driving factors: From water footprint view in Huaihe River Basin
Min An , Roles Conceptualization, Writing – original draft
Affiliations Hubei Key Laboratory of Construction and Management in Hydropower Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei Province, China, College of Economics & Management, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei Province, China Roles Conceptualization, Writing – original draft
Affiliation College of Hydraulic & Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei Province, China ⨯
Jin Huang ,
Affiliation College of Hydraulic & Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei Province, China ⨯
Hailin Wu ,
Xiao Wang, Current address: China Water Resources Huai River Planning, Design & Research CO.LTD, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
NEW DELHI: A flash flood in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand that ravaged through the valleys of the Rishi Ganga, Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers last month was triggered by a massive rockslide just below Ronti peak and the energy of the fall melted the ice creating the source of flood, said scientific findings of an intergovernmental body, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
The findings, released on Friday, said the energy of the fall of about 22 million cubic metres of rock mixed with ice and snow “remobilised the debris and ice on the valley floor deposited by previous events, pushed the stream water and created an excessive flood wave”.
With rescue efforts still underway, the disaster has swiftly become international news.
Media coverage has speculated about the cause of the devastation, with glacial lake “outbursts”, broken glaciers and avalanches all put forward as possible explanations.
In this factcheck, Carbon Brief unpacks how the events unfolded and speaks to scientists who suggest that a landslide was, in fact, the most likely primary cause.
And while further analysis is needed to assess the role of climate change, one scientist tells Carbon Brief that rising temperatures are causing “more of these big slope collapses”.
What happened?
According to police in Uttrakhand, the flood hit around 05:30GMT (11:00 local time). The torrent of water, ice and debris first destroyed the Rishiganga hydroelectric project – a small dam of roughly 13.2MW. BBC News reported that “the impact catapulted water along the Dhauliganga river” where it hit the much larger 520MW Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower�