Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

Rockfall/Rockslide Hazard, Lake Expansion and Dead-Ice Melting Assessment: Lake Imja, Nepal

Publication at Faculty of Science |
2021

Abstract

The current global climate change is accelerating many natural processes that can lead to the rupture of dams of glacial lakes. One of these lakes is Lake Imja in the Khumbu area of Nepal.

Three factors that influence the stability of the moraine dam were selected for analysis in this work - rockfalls/rockslides, growth of the lake area and melting of dead ice in the frontal moraine. The results of this study show that there is currently no risk of rockslide into the lake, which, however, may change due to the accelerating growth of the lake in the near future.

The development of temperatures is also observed, where the increase in the last two decades is particularly striking. Crucial for the stability of the moraine dam is now the melting of dead ice at its core, as new thermokarst lakes are forming on the moraine surface, and a leak through the moraine in its southwestern part has also been discovered.