Rapid Glacier Melting Produces Devastating Landslides Across the World

News Briefing: 19 July 2022

Over the past decade, dozens of major high-mountain slopes around the world have partially collapsed due to accelerated ice loss, with major landslides occurring more frequently. In Alaska, unusually warm summers have triggered intense glacier melt, destabilizing sediments on rocky slopes that escalated into debris flows and tsunamis that hit downstream communities. The Coast mountain range in British Columbia produced several glacial lake outburst floods within the past few years that poured into nearby valleys to produce massive flooding. In India, a rockfall triggered by ice loss killed more than two hundred people. Several glaciers in the Northern and Southern Patagonian Icefields of Chile released enough meltwater to generate landslides that destabilized surrounding regions, increasing their vulnerability to future collapse. Following an intense rainfall event, one of these landslides triggered a debris flow that carried much of a glacier downhill before destroying most of Santa Lucia, killing nearly two dozen people. The increasing frequency of these events underscores the devastating consequences of accelerated melting; and emphasizes the need for rapid and far-reaching action on a global scale to reduce global emissions, allowing vulnerable communities to better adapt to a warming climate.

https://blogs.agu.org/fromaglaciersperspective/2022/07/20/glacier-landslides-and-collapses-preconditioned-by-warming/