BENGALURU, India — Human-caused global warming thinned glaciers and thawed mountain permafrost, likely helping to destabilize the Himalayan slope that collapsed last month and unleashed catastrophic flooding across Nepal, according to a report released Thursday.
\n\nThe report by the World Weather Attribution cautioned that climate change was not the sole cause of the Aug. 26 disaster. A large 2015 Nepal earthquake may have weakened the rock years before the collapse, their analysis found.
\n\n“This disaster was not an extreme weather event, but the fingerprints of climate change are still clear to see in long-term changes,” said Ben Clarke, a climate researcher at Imperial College London who worked on the analysis, in a press statement.
\n\nMore than 1,300 people were killed and over 5,000 remain missing after a massive section of rock and overlying glacier collapsed near Nepal’s border with China. The resulting torrent of water, ice, boulders and sediment swept through communities along the Trishuli River corridor and caused billions of dollars in damage.
\n\nClimate scientists said that across the Himalayas rising temperatures are causing glaciers to retreat and thawing permanently frozen ground that helps bind fractured mountain rock together. That means climate change can alter not only weather hazards…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business