Scientists find clues in satellite imagery to the cause of catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet

As rescue teams searched Thursday for missing people following catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border, earth scientists reviewed satellite imagery for clues to the cause and assessed the devastation. The flooding killed hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday. Many more are still missing, including scores of foreigners and pilgrims. Geomorphologists Kristen Cook and Dan Shugar said initial images from Nepal on Wednesday were obscured by clouds and dust from the debris, so they could only see that part of a glacier had broken off from the Langtang Lirung peak, near the border with Tibet. After slamming to the valley floor, the debris maintained its momentum through the steep, narrow valley as ice melted, said Cook, at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France.

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