Retreating glaciers in the Himalayas are not only dangerously filling up glacial lakes but they are also causing other hazards that are not being monitored, scientists have warned. The recent flash flood disaster in India's Uttarakhand state, they say, is the latest example of such a perilous knowledge gap.
The Himalayas have the largest number of glaciers on Earth outside the poles and they have lost billions of tonnes of ice due to accelerated melting caused by global warming. "There is simply no comprehensive understanding of what actually is happening in terms of such hazards," said Professor Jeffrey Kargel, a senior geologist in the US who has researched a number of disasters in the Himalayas and who is also looking into the Uttarakhand disaster.
