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Imja Lake near Mt Everest is not a danger to Nepal, satellite images indicate

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In 2016, Nepal drained the Imja Lake to a ‘safe level’, and ThePrint’s analysis reveals that today, it is no longer much of a threat to its people.

This International Mountain Day, 11 December, brought distressing news that glaciers at the foot of Mt Everest and Lhotse are melting and forming lakes which are growing in size. This has led to fears of a deluge in Nepal.

The most prominent of these lakes is Imja Tsho, which falls on one of the most famous Everest-climbing routes — via South Col through Nepal. Some expeditions actually climb Mt Imja, popularly known as Island Peak, as practice before climbing Everest.

In 2010, NASA stated that the “melt water from the glacier began collecting at the foot of the glacier” in the 1960s, creating the Imja Lake.

“A 2009 study described this lake of melt water as one of the fastest-growing in the Himalaya. Held in place by a terminal moraine, Imja Tsho threatens downstream communities with the potential for a glacial outburst flood,” it stated.

The increasing number of trekkers and mountaineers in the region has been blamed for causing massive damage to the environment, leading to the growing dangers of the lake.

However, this may not be an entirely correct assessment of the situation, even though global warming in general may be a factor.

In 2016, Nepal drained the Imja Lake to a “safe level”. And ThePrint’s analysis of satellite imagery on Google Earth has revealed that as of today, the Imja Lake is no longer much of a threat to the people of Nepal.

Imja Glacier & lake formation

Satellite imagery provides clear indications about how the Imja Glacier and lake are formed.

The Imja Glacier seems to be a cirque glacier, beginning at the cirque of Mt Lhotse — the fourth-highest peak in the world — and the bowl created by the surrounding mountains.

The cirque glacier, when travelling down from the bowl east of Mt Imja or Island Peak, turns into a valley glacier.

Numerous avalanches take place every day in this steepest and highest range of the Himalayas, which break the glacier forming below every time.

Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint

Thus, the Imja Glacier and others in the vicinity are very thin glaciers, having large crevasses through which water can be seen even on satellite images.

This thin valley glacier will form a lake wherever it finds a level plateau. Later, the glacier would flow beyond the lake, depending on the gradient of the area.


Also read: The rising Russia-Ukraine tensions at Kerch Strait, and how US overflight affects them


Changes observed

In 1984, the Imja Lake was barely 1.5 km long, but in 2018, it has almost doubled in size to more than 2.8 km.

Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint

The comparative images from 1984 onwards suggest a steady progression in length, at a time when lakes all over the world are shrinking. This has led to concerns.

Breaking of the Imja Glacier

Satellite images from 2013 clearly show how 400m of the glacier has broken. This has probably happened due to some kind of seismic activity.

Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint
Vinayak Bhat/ThePrint

The ice blocks are seen for almost a year on satellite images, indicating that the flow of water is very, very slow and the Imja Lake is shallow.

Thus, the water in the lakes around Everest may not really contain enough water to have sufficient strength to deluge even small villages, leave alone large swathes of Nepal, as feared.

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