A Massive 20 Billion Liters Unleashed: 600-Meter-Wide Glacier Collapses

[Anchor]

The sudden disaster that swept across the border between Nepal and Chinese Tibet was caused by a massive chunk of glacier breaking off in the Himalayas. A staggering 20 billion liters of water surged into the canyon, with the water level at the time estimated to have reached 50 meters.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu has the details.

[Reporter]

This catastrophic flood began in the high-altitude Himalayan region of the Rasuwa district in northern Nepal.

According to an analysis of satellite imagery by a research team at the University of Calgary in Canada, the glacier collapse occurred at an altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level.

The width of the detached glacier is estimated to be about 600 meters.

The glacier mass plunged 1,200 meters, dragging down rocks and soil from the mountain along the way.

Although it initially blocked the river halfway up the mountain, the heat and impact from the collapsing ice and rocks caused the glacier to melt rapidly. It ultimately burst through, pouring all at once into the narrow valley.

According to Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the United States, the speed of the water flow reached 70 kilometers per hour at the time.

The flood level was estimated at an astonishing 50 meters.

The Nepal Flood Forecasting Section stated that the landslide unleashed 20 million cubic meters—equivalent to 20 billion liters—of water into the canyon.

That is enough to fill 8,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The resulting torrent engulfed the Rasuwagadhi border checkpoint, located 20 kilometers away from the landslide site, and swept down villages 60 kilometers away along the canyon.

Furthermore, because it was a debris flow mixed with rocks, soil, and water, analysts note that it created a highly energetic and destructive current.

The deep V-shaped canyon terrain is also cited as a factor that amplified the damage.

As the torrential current concentrated into a narrow channel, the velocity and water level increased further, sending water and soil surging dozens of kilometers away.

Consequently, multiple villages and markets formed along the riverbanks were completely swept away.

[Song Young-seok / Head of Geological Disaster Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources: If the width of the glacier is 600 meters, imagine a dam height of generally 200 to 300 meters. Just imagine that dam collapsing all at once. If something like the Soyanggang Dam collapsed all at once, you can imagine how immense that destructive power would be.]

During the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which killed around 8,900 people, the steep mountainous terrain and canyons also resulted in massive casualties, including Everest climbers losing their lives to avalanches.

(Video editing: Lee Seung-yeol, Design: Lee Jun-ho, Choi Jae-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.