Overseas Network, February 9th. A glacier broke in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand on the 7th. At present, 26 people have been killed and 171 people are still missing.
Although the cause of the accident caused by glacier rupture is still under investigation, scientists said that from the perspective of long-term factors, the intensification of global warming in the past 30 years has led to the melting of glaciers, which is the underlying cause of this disaster.
In addition, some experts believe that mountain torrents caused by glacier fractures are caused by landslides and large-scale engineering construction.
"India Today" published an article on the 7th that in July 2020, experts warned that there was a melting glacier in the Nanda Devi area where the accident occurred.
A research report shows that 26 square kilometers of glaciers in the Nanda Devi area melted between 1980 and 2017, accounting for 10% of the total glaciers in the area. During the same period, the height of the glacier balance line also fluctuated about 500 meters.
According to a 2020 report by the Berkeley Institute of Earth and Climate, the average temperature in 2020 is 1.27 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature in the 19th century, and the temperature increase has been the most significant in the past six years.
In addition to climate change factors, some experts also believe that landslides were the cause of the disaster.
Similar incidents occurred in this area in 2016, but the impact was relatively small. Experts believe that Nanda Devi, located in the Himalayas, is a sensitive and fragile area, and large-scale engineering facilities should not be built here.
According to previous reports, 35 hydropower station workers were stranded in the tunnel when the disaster occurred.
In addition, there are also speculations that the outburst of glacial lakes caused flash floods.
(Overseas Net Wang Xiaoyu)