A satellite tv for pc picture reveals one in every of two lakes on the website of the glacial collapse within the border space between Nepal and Tibet Autonomous Area, China, on August 28, 2026.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Two extra glacial lakes have fashioned in Nepal, close to the obvious supply of the ice-rock avalanche that triggered flooding in Nepal’s Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river system on Wednesday (August 26, 2026).
Additionally learn: Nepal flash flood updates on August 28, 2026
Whereas the formation of the lakes is understood, info on the potential water outflow is unavailable, stated Krishna Vatsa, Member and Head of the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Authority (NDMA). “One is nineteen.80 hectares, and the opposite is 7.28 hectares. We don’t have any estimates of the quantity, however there are moraines [piles of debris deposited by a moving glacier],” he instructed The Hindu. “These are lakes which have fashioned in Nepal, and we don’t have direct information of what’s occurring there. We have to hold monitoring. These are pure formations, and so we will’t fully predict how they evolve,” he added.
No less than one in every of these lakes seems just like the one independently confirmed by Suhora Applied sciences, a Noida-based space-data analytics agency, which additionally stated it had recognized a “newly fashioned water physique” on the supply of the ice-rock avalanche.
Monitoring new glacial lake
“Evaluation of high-resolution optical satellite tv for pc imagery acquired on August 27 reveals a lake spanning roughly 20.25 hectares within the high-altitude Lhende Khola area, close to the Nepal-Tibet border. The corporate positioned the characteristic at 28°17′39.0″N, 85°30′38.9″E. The imagery, provided by Satellogic at a decision of about 70 cm, was acquired at 04:22 UTC (9:52 a.m. IST) on August 27,” the corporate stated in a press release on Friday.
Suhora stated the lake’s formation is a vital characteristic to watch following the August 26 avalanche and subsequent flash flooding downstream. Whereas a newly fashioned water physique within the neighborhood of an avalanche or debris-flow supply may point out water accumulation related to the occasion, its presence by itself doesn’t imply that one other glacial-lake outburst flood is imminent.
The corporate stated it will proceed monitoring the lake’s extent and stability utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery. The evaluation stays preliminary, and additional observations and ground-based investigation will probably be wanted to determine the lake’s origin, depth, stability, and potential downstream threat, it added.
‘No escape’
To date, the consensus amongst consultants is {that a} mass of glacier ice, rock, and particles within the Himalayas close to Langtang Lirung indifferent itself at about 5,200 metres and fell roughly 1,200 metres into the Lhende Khola system. Its momentum gathered extra rock, sediment, ice, and water and morphed it right into a fast-moving particles circulate. That is what inundated the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river system.
NDMA officers stated that India had a monitoring community of each floor and satellite tv for pc measurements that “have been being improved”. Nevertheless, there are nonetheless limitations. “We can provide early warning 30 to 45 minutes prematurely, and that may save lives, however when billions of litres of water gush, there isn’t any escape. Injury will be contained solely when there are restrictions on the development and infrastructure within the susceptible river basins within the path of such outflow,” an official linked to the Centre’s catastrophe administration physique instructed The Hindu.
Printed – August 28, 2026 09:36 pm IST
