The Himalayas, or Himalaya, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest; over 100 peaks exceeding elevations of 7,200 m (23,600 ft) above sea level lie in the Himalayas.
Imja Tse, better known as Island Peak, is a mountain in Sagarmatha National Park of the Himalayas of eastern Nepal. The peak was named Island Peak in 1953 by members of the British Mount Everest expedition because it appears as an island in a sea of ice when viewed from Dingboche. The peak was later renamed in 1983 to Imja Tse but Island Peak remains the popular choice. The peak is actually an extension of the ridge coming down off the south end of Lhotse Shar.
A jökulhlaup is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst floods from Vatnajökull, Iceland, which are triggered by geothermal heating and occasionally by a volcanic subglacial eruption, but it is now used to describe any large and abrupt release of water from a subglacial or proglacial lake/reservoir.
In geomorphology, an outburst flood—a type of megaflood—is a high-magnitude, low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of a large quantity of water. During the last deglaciation, numerous glacial lake outburst floods were caused by the collapse of either ice sheets or glaciers that formed the dams of proglacial lakes. Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth and inferred from geomorphological evidence on Mars. Landslides, lahars, and volcanic dams can also block rivers and create lakes, which trigger such floods when the rock or earthen barrier collapses or is eroded. Lakes also form behind glacial moraines or ice dams, which can collapse and create outburst floods.
Dudh Koshi is a river in eastern Nepal. It is the highest river in terms of elevation.
Glacial motion is the motion of glaciers, which can be likened to rivers of ice. It has played an important role in sculpting many landscapes. Most lakes in the world occupy basins scoured out by glaciers. Glacial motion can be fast or slow, but is typically around 25 centimetres per day (9.8 in/d).
The Gandaki River, also known as the Narayani and the Gandak, is one of the major rivers in Nepal and a left bank tributary of the Ganges in India. Its total catchment area amounts to 46,300 km2 (17,900 sq mi), most of it in Nepal. In the Nepal Himalayas, it is notable for its deep canyon. The basin also contains three mountains over 8,000 m (26,000 ft), namely Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna I. Dhaulagiri is the highest point of the Gandaki basin.
Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer. The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves. Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice, which may lead to the formation of thin underwater ice layers called false bottoms.
A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jökulhlaup. The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine. Failure can happen due to erosion, a buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or cryoseism, volcanic eruptions under the ice, or massive displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it.
The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and, in the longer term, the level of the oceans. Deglaciation occurs naturally at the end of ice ages, but glaciologists find the current glacier retreat is accelerated by the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases and is an effect of climate change. Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, Rockies, Alps, Cascades, Southern Alps, and the southern Andes, as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses. Excluding peripheral glaciers of ice sheets, the total cumulated global glacial losses over the 26 year period from 1993–2018 were likely 5500 gigatons, or 210 gigatons per yr.
A supraglacial lake is any pond of liquid water on the top of a glacier. Although these pools are ephemeral, they may reach kilometers in diameter and be several meters deep. They may last for months or even decades at a time, but can empty in the course of hours.
Colonia Glacier is a valley glacier located in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile. The glacier spills out to the southeast from an ice plateau north of Cerro Arenales and has its terminus about 4 km (2.5 mi) from Colonia Lake. Colonia Glacier dams two lakes; Cachet II and Arco Lake. The ice dam containing the waters of Cachet II Lake fails regularly, which generates glacial lake outburst floods.
The Imja Khola is a tributary of the Dudh Kosi in Nepal. It drains the slopes of Mount Everest. The Khumbu Glacier melts into the Lobujya (Lobuche) River, which flows southward as the Imja Khola to its confluence with the Dudh Kosi at Tengboche.
Imja Glacier is located in the Himalayas, in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal.
The glaciers in Bhutan, which covers about 3 percent of the total surface area, are responsible for feeding all rivers of Bhutan except the Amochu and Nyere Amachu.
The lakes of Bhutan comprise its glacial lakes and its natural mountain lakes. Bhutanese territory contains some 2,674 high altitude glacial lakes and subsidiary lakes, out of which 25 pose a risk of GLOFs. There are also more than 59 natural non-glacial lakes in Bhutan, covering about 4,250 hectares (16.4 sq mi). Most are located above an altitude of 3,500 metres (11,500 ft), and most have no permanent human settlements nearby, though many are used for grazing yaks and may have scattered temporary settlements.
Ambulapcha Glacier is a glacier of the Himalayas in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal. It adjoins Imja Glacier to its south and with Lhotse Shar Glacier forms three major glaciers. It forms the Ambulapcha Tsho glacial lake, located at 27°53′35″N86°54′47″E.
Lhotse Shar is a glacier of the Himalayas in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal. It adjoins Imja Glacier to the northeast and with Ambulapcha Glacier forms three major glaciers. To the east is Cho Polu (6734m/22,093ft).
Amphu Labtsa pass, elevation 5,845 metres (19,177 ft), is a glaciated pass covered in serac cliffs at the head of the Honku Valley. It provides a way out of the otherwise relatively isolated Honku valley. The base of the valley is at 5,000 m (16,400 ft) and has several glacial lakes including the Panch Pokhri or Five Sacred Lakes. The Amphu Labtsa pass is crossed by mountaineers en route to Island Peak or Baruntse expeditions and involves technical mountaineering. The ice and rock summit is quite exposed and provides good views of Lhotse Shar, Island Peak and the Imja Glacier. The way down into the Imja valley on the other side of the pass involves abseiling followed fixed rope descent. The approximate alpine grade of the Amphu Labtsa pass would be 'D'.
Thulagi glacier is located in the catchment area of the Marshyangdi River basin in Nepal. A study by KfW, Frankfurt and the BGR, in cooperation with the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology of Nepal have identified it as a potentially dangerous glacier due to possibility of outburst of the lake created by the glacier.
