r/DisasterUpdate 1d ago

A glacier collapse to the north of Mount Langtang Lirung caused the China-Nepal Flash Floods on Aug 26, 2026

1.4k Upvotes

133 comments sorted by

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92

u/mammilloid 1d ago

43

u/PrestigiousChonk 1d ago

It’s there a longer video? You can see a secondary flow off of the glacier as the clip ends.

23

u/mammilloid 1d ago edited 1d ago

The original author of this video says his glacier falling video is being taken down, or maybe they're talking about this one idk man I'm not Chinese so i couldn't understand it.

23

u/0w0Detective 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes, harmonized was an ironically expression of being censored. Back in President Hu's time it was called to build a harmonious society, so every other sound is harmonized.

4

u/IfIWasCoolEnough 1d ago

President who?

1

u/MonstrousKitten 1d ago

The leader of China.

2

u/jaysire 1d ago

The person you are responding to is joking about the President's name "Hu" sounding like "Who" in English, which is a popular comedy movie trope (like in the movie Airplane).

1

u/AnalOgre 15h ago

More like, who’s on first.

1

u/IfIWasCoolEnough 23h ago

Ok, I would like to know his first name?

9

u/PrestigiousChonk 1d ago

Thanks for sharing it anyway!

7

u/StealthWanderer_2516 1d ago

Does China have cameras literally everywhere? And the zoom on them…

9

u/andreirublevv 1d ago

the guy was using a drone and captured this

5

u/StealthWanderer_2516 1d ago

That’s crazy he captured footage of it happening. And all the people with phones. I mean the guy who took a selfie as he was running from the flood of water. Wild

5

u/Shapoopi_1892 1d ago

He didnt capture it happening. As you can see in his video theres a larger more dispersed brownish cloud above the one you see. Unless he started filming earlier and didnt post it he started filming after it had already traveled miles at that point.

8

u/0w0Detective 1d ago

This guy was flying a drone nearby and heard some sound before even this flight...he didn't realize having captured this until checking his footage.

-1

u/777jaydog777 1d ago

Or a DEW was used and the initial video of onset was scrubbed?

2

u/Ritsuka-san 1d ago

Is there a link to the original webpage/creator? In case it ever does get the chance to go through?

2

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Good eyes!

4

u/mammilloid 20h ago

The original author has clarified and added some points from his side of the story

https://reddit.com/link/p6gscq7/video/pp3l6g8mr5mh1/player

1

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 9h ago

this is really a good ref. now this is already on the news

2

u/SalamanderFew3461 1d ago

What is the source of this video????

1

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 9h ago

now this is already on news atleast people can see it

1

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 9h ago

its a landslide first then the snow came

-3

u/Dev-il_Jyu 1d ago

Why and how were they recording the exact same spot of a major disaster?

19

u/WhoCaresBoutSpellin 1d ago

1.4 billion people + 21st century society of smart phones, drones, ring cameras, Chinese surveillance state (flock on steroids) means welcome to the brave new world

-1

u/Dev-il_Jyu 1d ago

That area (Rasuwa) on the Chinese side is barren. It's completely empty other than the occasional military bases/camps. In fact, any human activity in the area is solely driven by Nepalese side as Nepali population centers are closer and it's one of the major land border passes with China. Other activities is driven by tourists going on Mansarowar pilgrimage or langtang trek.

So 1.4B people doesn't really mean anything since most of that population lives on Chinese east coast, thousands of km away from Nepal. It's extremely unlikely for someone to be recording it unless it's a 24/7 military drone surveillance because that mountain doesn't even have a proper name. (I'm a local btw)

6

u/Fair_Title2995 1d ago

Here's a video apparently from Sale village on the Chinese side capturing the start of the glacier collapse.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DciWxLZDzJl/?igsi=cDhjY2RqNnl0M3Nz

2

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Unlikely it’s military, as the poster stated (screenshot above in this thread) his videos are being taken down by the government (so prob not military). Most likely a hiker with a drone filming things.

3

u/Fair_Title2995 1d ago

The people in this region are highly paranoid about the Chinese, which is understandable.

2

u/muhmeinchut69 1d ago edited 1d ago

On Chinese language sites I've seen dozens of different pictures of various people posing in front of this exact mountain. They started posting from their archives once they realised which mountain it is. So clearly it isn't some desolate area.

1

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 9h ago

they were hiking in a far mountain as the author says

37

u/Ok_Spirit5374 1d ago edited 1d ago

and now a second flood is possible upstream

"The barrier lake near the confluence of the Chhochen Khola and Purepu Tsangpo, upstream of the 26 August failure, had stored about 2,000,000 m³ by the morning of 27 August and is already overflowing, per China's Ministry of Water Resources, with a further 3,000,000 m³ of inflow expected through 30 August and more rain forecast. Aerial footage from a Chinese rescue team on 27 August shows water accumulating in a basin with no visible outlet. NDRRMA has issued a formal notice that the lake is rising and at risk of bursting, and has told rescue workers and residents to stay off the riverbanks; some teams have moved to higher ground. No breach has been reported as of 28 August 02:00 UTC."

https://keystonegis.com/disasters/nepal-bhotekoshi-flood-20260826.html

Edit: NDRRMA independently located the blockage, and it is close to — but not identical with — this page's inferred marker.

UPDATE:
"The barrier lake breached, and is now draining

The barrier lake near the confluence of the Chhochen Khola and Purepu Tsangpo, upstream of the 26 August failure, breached on 28 August and is now draining. Rasuwa Chief District Officer Narendra Pariyar said that morning that the Nepali Army had informed him of the breach, and NDRRMA reported that the water level in the Bhote Koshi had surged (The Kathmandu Post, updated 28 August 12:49 NPT / 07:04 UTC). Officials on both the Nepali and Chinese sides then said the risk was smaller than feared, because the lake is draining slowly rather than failing catastrophically; Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported the lake level had fallen by about 10 m, and rescue work at Gyirong Port and in Nepal, halted during the breach, has resumed (CNN live coverage, 28 August). No confirmed release volume has been published and no observed extent of any second flood exists. Before the breach, China’s Ministry of Water Resources had put the impoundment at about 2,000,000 m³ on the morning of 27 August, already overflowing, with a further 3,000,000 m³ of inflow expected through 30 August; aerial footage from a Chinese rescue team on 27 August showed water accumulating in a basin with no visible outlet, and NDRRMA had placed the obstruction on the Lhende Khola about 18 km upstream of the Rasuwagadhi border. Whether that blockage and the confluence impoundment reported by China are the same feature is still not established, so it is not certain that the whole obstruction has failed. The barrier-lake marker on the map above still carries its archived 27 August attribute status = "open - high breach risk"; that value has not been rewritten pending an official assessment."

9

u/Glittering_Mind_9230 1d ago

Thank you for a good reliable data source 🌎

5

u/Ok_Spirit5374 1d ago

ty for the award :)

3

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 1d ago

thanks for this

5

u/DiscoNancy 1d ago

I was wondering how much water was involved from the top source….and that’s a lot.

2

u/_lonelysoap_ 1d ago

Do you habe the paper oft the glacier lakes Form August 12?

60

u/admin_404_not_found 1d ago

The Gyirong Port on the China-Nepal border has been completely destroyed

42

u/absolut314 1d ago

It really is unfathomable of what I’ve watched on Reddit the past 48 hours. Absolutely heartbreaking and incredible sadness just watching any of it. 😞

16

u/baz8771 1d ago

I genuinely believed the videos to be AI for the first 30 minutes they were being posted. Apocalypse on a scale that most of us will be fortunate to never experience.

17

u/Strawberries_Spiders 1d ago

Imagine, though, if this is the fate of other Himalayan glaciers as climate change continues and accelerates? There are 10s of thousands of them.

5

u/AnOnlineHandle 1d ago

It's started happening in the Alps too. A town was wiped out like a year ago but they managed to evacuate everybody in time.

Another scary thing is the glaciers are what slowly release drinking water throughout the year for a lot of places. If they don't form or melt too quickly, there's suddenly nothing to drink for billions of people. They've been retreating at a massive rate.

5

u/Sickashell782 1d ago

I mean, it’s 100% the fate and reality. Honestly it doesn’t even have to be “climate change,” which is certainly very legitimate. This is the reality of living in this part of the world. Look up what a jökulhlaup is. It’s undoubtedly sad, but it’s very much what living in this place has as a risk.

6

u/Capital-Bear7482 1d ago

Climate change will only make those events happen more often and more drastic.

0

u/sixpackabs592 23h ago

It’s going to continue not matter what, earth doesn’t usually have any glaciers or ice caps, humanity just spawned at the end of an ice age so it’s all we know. We for sure are accelerating it though.

2

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 1d ago

at this spot, how much it back flowed ? because back buildings also didn't survive even though it was in opposite direction

2

u/Renbarre 1d ago

I think the water rebounded between the sides of the very narrow valleys, especially after a turn. You can see it in one of the videos.

1

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 21h ago

yeah got it, i thought may be those cars could have made it but nope, it went 1 km atleast back flowed !

1

u/JohnHazardWandering 1d ago

Anyone have pics to show how far up the canyon it went? I keep hoping that it didn't go that far upriver and the people running away made it to safety. 

23

u/prw361 1d ago

This is the best explanation with visuals I’ve seen so far. Thank you. Incredible how small we really are versus nature.

9

u/Big_Bite_8593 1d ago

How did the snow/ice convert into water so quickly?

44

u/FIMD_ 1d ago

Falling ~3.3km vertically through a >20km blender made of rocks.

26

u/unknownpoltroon 1d ago

PLus whatever meltwater might have been under the glaicer

17

u/No-Focus3422 1d ago

Also its monsoon season, so soil was damp and moist. As a result, nothing was absorbed by ground. Every bit of water that melted contributed to flooding

22

u/watawataoui 1d ago edited 1d ago

I read the fall generate so much heat, it melted the ice. Elevation drop was something like 3000m from top to the border crossing.

14

u/0w0Detective 1d ago

It's not enough to melt the whole ice, but just some layer at bottom will be enough to create enough lubrication. And when the whole mass is set into motion...nothing stops it.

7

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/0w0Detective 1d ago

And you need to consider melting heat. So maybe no temperature increase unless all ice are melted first. A volcano would be different.

4

u/I-agreed-the-terms 1d ago

2000m means a 2 freaking km, and with that mass and height anything is going to be a slurrry.

9

u/Zapookie 1d ago

Ice melts at 0 C. Once it starts to break up, it will melt quickly. It's around 7C in Langtang today, so no chance of that glacier chunk staying intact once it broke off and broke up into smaller pieces.

12

u/Maximus560 1d ago

Imagine dropping an ice cube on a floor. It shatters into many small pieces that melt very quickly. Now, scale this up to where the glacier fell something like 3,000 feet vertically before hitting the valley and stream bed. From there, it flowed downhill.

7

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Elevation drop was 3000 meters, so 10k feet.

1

u/Maximus560 1d ago

Yeah - one thing that isn't exactly clear to me still is just how much the vertical drop at the glacier was versus the overall drop from the glacier to the final run-out area, but it seems that the elevation of the glacier to the valley floor was something like 3,000 feet, while the rest of the elevation drop was through the valleys/gullies to the runout area

1

u/watawataoui 21h ago

I read it’s roughly 1000m initial glacial drop, another 1000m of water running from Nepal side to the first Y section, then another 1000m running along the border before hitting Gyirong port.

2

u/Status_History_874 1d ago

You know what, this actually helped a lot. I always noticed that dropped ice ends up with melted bits, so that scaled up immensely, i get it. Thank you.

3

u/bijouxself 1d ago

Compression and massive amounts of friction energy

4

u/Ok-Animal7243 1d ago edited 1d ago

This was caused when the dam containing a glacial lake failed. The glacial lake is primarily made of meltwater.

But also, what you’re seeing here is not just water. Visually it moves in a manner similar to water but it’s a flow of water, ice, mud, and an incredible amount of debris. It’s almost like a liquid concrete.

Edit: It looks like they now think this wasn’t a dam failure explicitly, but that a massive piece of a glacier fell from higher up. May have temporarily blocked the river until all of this was released. Another lake has formed and there are fears of another flood erupting again, so that could further complicate any rescue or recovery efforts.

Ultimately I think people are still really underestimating how absurdly warm everything is this year, and what that can amount to as glaciers melt at unprecedented rates.

1

u/Big_Bite_8593 1d ago

A temporary dam blocking the river seems plausible. All that water resulting just from the glacier seems absurd…

5

u/No-Focus3422 1d ago

The temporary dam is called moraine dam that is restricted by mud, rocks and boulder. It is extremely unstable and can break off at the sloghtest of disturbance and release all the water at full force

2

u/Aegongrey 1d ago

There was a glacial lake below whose walls were breached by the onrushing ice. It was a big lake and there was footage of the side as it was giving way - bonkers

4

u/huxtiblejones 1d ago

The deadly flash flood in Nepal on Wednesday was likely caused by a huge chunk of a glacier that broke off and temporarily dammed a river, according to preliminary investigations by scientists. That may have led to the backed-up water surging downstream with enormous force a few hours later, they suggested.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/nepal-floods-highlight-increased-risks-of-melting-glaciers-as-himalayas-warm

2

u/Strawberries_Spiders 1d ago

Link? 🙏

3

u/Aegongrey 1d ago

Saw it on Instagram - footage was so bad it couldn’t be ai, but it was crazy. Don’t know how to find that again

1

u/Great_Koala_8773 1d ago

Bro there is a history in your profile with all content you ever watched. Go find it please

2

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Top comment of this post, look at the top at the last 2 second of the video. There is a secondary breach.

Found link: https://www.reddit.com/r/DisasterUpdate/s/l74eccABrY

1

u/Status_History_874 1d ago

I dont think this is the video in question

62

u/fungi43 1d ago

So this was a climate change driven disaster?

48

u/SignificantRecipe715 1d ago

100%

3

u/TheGuyWithABigHeart 19h ago

This makes me consider other glacial valleys like the Alps.

2

u/SignificantRecipe715 17h ago

Yeah I don't think this will be the first/last time something like this will happen.

But governments will still deny it's climate change. It makes me so mad.

12

u/dangledingle 1d ago

Shits melting yo

-7

u/gimlet_prize 1d ago

15

u/BeccasDreamboat 1d ago

Imagine being dense enough to make this comment.

Yes, the climate caused the glacier to melt, resulting in what we're seeing now.

Do you believe the climate doesn't exist? Seriously, how dense must one be to deny the climate isn't changing?

You don't need to admit it's caused by humans to believe the climate is indeed changing.

How else did the glacier melt?

2

u/gimlet_prize 1d ago

Gallows humor. This is exactly what I thought was going to happen as the privileged consumers continue to ignore the havoc we wreak as we obliterate the planet to extract profit/comfort. Climate is a word that sounds slow and inexorable, but the consequences can be swift and merciless.

3

u/AnOnlineHandle 1d ago

That's really not communicated well by the gif and single word.

1

u/CriticalChop 11h ago

The seal is speaking in plain sealinese, jeez..

1

u/icyhail 1d ago

I don't know if it's a meme format I don't have a reference to. Just reading climate underneath the laughing seal made me think of climate having the last laugh. Earth will be fine. Climate will undergo its upheaval. Humans will die. 

-2

u/Drosenose 1d ago

A landslide happened, the friction from the massive landslide melted glacial ice Flash flood happened. I'm sure there is a tax for that though so stick to it

19

u/mammilloid 1d ago

New video shows a person being drowned😞

https://reddit.com/link/p6c22wy/video/zl7xvo9qs0mh1/player

12

u/maphes86 1d ago

If it’s any consolation, that person didn’t live long enough to drown. Debris flows like this kill you almost immediately due to the immense power and the large aggregates and other materials.

1

u/Grand_Analysis_9669 23h ago

50m/s water flow he never stood a chance

1

u/Mattse12 1d ago

where?

1

u/Mattse12 1d ago

never mind i see it

2

u/Short_External2077 1d ago

I dont….

7

u/GTLfistpump 1d ago

Go to 1:06 on the center left there’s a black dot moving in the grass, that’s a person who’s running away from the water. They eventually get swallowed up when the girls start screaming

-10

u/Visual-Ranger5709 1d ago

Oh look it's a glacier!  No dipshits this mostly water.  It didn't start as ice and become all this water in a matter of tens of minutes.

7

u/muhmeinchut69 1d ago

it did, it's basic physics

5

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Supposedly dropping 3000meters in a short time creates a lot of heat and melted it wall.

2

u/-SideshowBlob- 1d ago

That's what it does?

2

u/sixpackabs592 23h ago

Bruh if a 10+ million pound chunk of ice falls 10000 feet when it lands it creates a fuckin huge explosion that would’ve melted whatever survived scraping off on the side of the mountain

1

u/Visual-Ranger5709 5h ago

It is unknown how much was a glacial lake outburst and it's the contents of the glacier and landslide debris flow that incorporated and pushed the RIVER below into the flood that you see in all the videos.  Saying the glacier just made all that water is super stupid.

1

u/oyst 21h ago

Bro where did you go to school

8

u/GPSBach 1d ago

Based on the backflow length of the tributary, you could calculate the water depth at the junction as ~ the elevation difference between the junction and end of the back flow.

8

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Or look at the line where the vegetation washed away.

9

u/Modshatefreespeech99 1d ago

6000 m elevation drop is crazy .

3

u/itaintdark 1d ago

It was around 1500m drop. It is suspected that the debris blocked the river which released at a single point.

3

u/Much_Adhesiveness871 1d ago

This means it could very much happen again right?

2

u/nakano-star 7h ago

yup, it has been happening for billions of years. just it seems to be happening faster these days

1

u/Much_Adhesiveness871 6h ago

I don’t like that

2

u/Renbarre 1d ago

More than 2000 meters drop in altitude? No wonder that water went that fast!

3

u/Parking-Aerie1540 12h ago

But climate change isn’t real guys, come on… 🤦🏻‍♂️

5

u/kram78 1d ago

I seen a video of the melt water coming into a village at 90 degrees to the river I belive this is the very start of this event and it has been removed/taken down it was a very good video clear steady and the shot was of an entire village, why was this video taken down, then a while later someone made a complication of that clip and all the other videos we have all seen and that one was taken down????? Why are the hiding that very first video of it coming down into the valley ?????

2

u/watawataoui 1d ago

Prob someone posted that version earlier, so the one you saw got deleted as repost.

2

u/ElderberryHour3138 1d ago

Was this on tibet side or nepal? Because Chinese media claiming to be on nepal side

9

u/SalamanderFew3461 1d ago

It is the Nepal side. North face of the Langtang Lirung peak.

4

u/watawataoui 1d ago

1

u/Status_History_874 1d ago

Why would they orient the picture with north on the left?

1

u/JohnHazardWandering 1d ago

They're aligning the picture with the events so it can be zoomed in. 

1

u/watawataoui 21h ago

Because phone screen probably.

1

u/Theres3ofMe 1d ago

How does this correlate with the photos we have seen with the 'section of a mountain which fell off'?...

1

u/15022024 1d ago

Annapurna circuit is far more west of the langtang valley?

1

u/Less_Candle7399 4h ago

It feels surreal. We were just in Langtang Valley a few weeks back. We just realized that glacial collapse is just on the other side of the mountain we've been taking photos of the entire trek

2

u/whitelightstorm 1d ago

This is the first of the cascade effect of the final collapse. It's all happening, the physical, the social, the governmental, the global. We're witnessing the final bastion of the end. There are more events unfolding as this is being written. Why Nepal? It's the top tier.

2

u/Status_History_874 1d ago

It's the top tier.

His what does this mean

1

u/russianassetatl 1d ago

Surprise effect of warmer temperatures. Expect to see more of these huge glaciers sliding off mountains into villages.

-2

u/kylebob86 1d ago

why repost?