Experts from China’s Ministry of Natural Resources have said that Wednesday’s mudslide disaster that has left at least 558 missing was triggered by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier in Nepal.
“A high-altitude ice avalanche collapsed down the mountainside. As it moved rapidly downhill, it scoured and picked up glacial moraine along the channel, forming a high-speed debris flow,” said Guo Zhaocheng, director of the Geological Disaster Investigation and Monitoring Center at the China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The ice-avalanche debris flow that caused the Gyirong mudslide was travelling at approximately 50 meters per second, and flowed for more than 20 kilometers.
Of the hundreds missing, 260 are believed to be foreigners.
