Details at this time are unclear as to what exactly caused an enormous glacier collapse on the Andean mountain of Salkantay in Peru. Satellite images should solve the mystery of how the collapse started.
There was a similar example of glacial collapse ice in 2016 in the Himalayas of Tibet but, it involved the collapse of two separate glaciers.
( O/T At the Chinese and Tibet Autonomous Regionborder in the Himalayas, thousands of unknown pathogens were recently discovered in glacial ice. )
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The collapse at the foot of Machu Picchu was first reported by Diario Correo. The town of Santa Theresa was affected by the mudflow.
On 23 February 2020 (corrected – this was erroneously reported as 24 February 2020) an enormous, catastrophic debris flow tore down the Salkantay River in Santa Teresa, Peru. This event has killed at least four people, with a further 13 reported to be missing. Given the magnitude of the flow, this number is probably uncertain.
A mudflow on this scale usually requires an extraordinary cause. Diario Correo in Peru has an explanation– this event was caused by glacial collapse on Salkantay mountain. This hypothesis is proposed by Oscar Vilca Gómez, who the article describes as a specialist in Hydrology and Glaciology. He visited the site site of the detachment as part of a research team from the National Institute for Glacier Research of the Ministry of Environment. They propose that an ice / rock avalanche detached from the mountain, crossed the Salkantay Cocha lake, and generated the huge debris flow.
Video of the glacial outburst flood.
YouTube VideoPeruvian glaciers have lost 30 percent of their ice between 2000 and 2016 due to planetary warming.
The study, published September 30, 2019, in the journal The Cryosphere, used satellite data to measure the changes in glaciers across the Peruvian Andes mountains between 2000 and 2016. The researchers identified a glacial retreat of 29% for the period – an area roughly equivalent to 80,000 soccer fields. In addition, they found that of 1,973 glaciers that existed at the start of the study period, 170 have disappeared completely. They observed a rate of retreat for the period 2013 to 2016 almost four times higher than in the years before.
Like many glaciers around the globe, Peru’s glaciers are a valuable source of water for human communities. They store precipitation in the form of snow and ice and release it again in the form of meltwater during the dry season. They supply drinking water, ensure that the rivers continue to flow and supply water to hydroelectric power plants.
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YouTube VideoThe researchers involved with this new study said in a statement: forecasts predict that the maximum amount of water which can be obtained from the melting of the glaciers has already been exceeded in certain areas of the Andes.
An overall reduction in meltwater is to be expected.
The retreat of glaciers also increases the risk of natural hazards, said the scientists, such as when swollen meltwater lakes flood downstream communities. According to their statement:
The water is often held back by the former terminal moraines left by the glacier. If ice or rock avalanches end in the lake or the ice at the core of the moraines melts or erodes, the dam can break or overflow. This leads to the glacial lake emptying without warning, sending a destructive flood wave down the valley. A flood wave such as this destroyed a third of the town of Huaraz in 1941. In the Cordillera Blanca, glacier-related natural disasters claimed more than 25,000 victims between 1941 and 2003. It follows that tracking changes in glaciers is also important from a civil protection point of view. Doing so allows countermeasures to be taken in good time, for example the reinforcement of dams or the controlled draining of water from glacial lakes.