As glaciers melt, sudden flood risks threaten 15 million people, study finds

More than half of those at risk are located in four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru and China.

The Shishpar glacier in northern Pakistan started rapidly thawing during a record heat wave last spring. The melted snow and ice flowed into a nearby ice-dammed lake until water levels grew too high, triggering a large flash flood that wiped out a key bridge and battered a downstream village.
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This is not a unique event. Across the world’s iciest regions, communities live with the looming threat of inland tsunamis — massive walls of water moving quickly and forcefully from melting glaciers, known as glacial lake outburst floods.

A study published Tuesday in Nature Communications found that around 15 million people live in danger of such glacial flooding. More than half of those at risk are in four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru and China.

“It sounds quite dire, but it doesn’t need to be,” said Tom Robinson, a co-author of the study and risk researcher at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “With thoughtful investment and careful planning, we can avoid these [flooding disasters].”

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