{"id":343599,"date":"2025-07-28T18:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=343599"},"modified":"2025-07-28T18:44:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:14:20","slug":"glacial-lake-outburst-floods-glof-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/glacial-lake-outburst-floods-glof-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> Recently, Nepal experienced a catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) event which caused a flash flood, and washed away a China-built friendship bridge.<\/p>\n<h2>About Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF)<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_343600\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-343600\" style=\"width: 314px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-343600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Source-ETV-Bharat.jpg?resize=314%2C428&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"314\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Source-ETV-Bharat.jpg?resize=220%2C300&amp;ssl=1 220w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Source-ETV-Bharat.jpg?w=618&amp;ssl=1 618w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-343600\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; ETV Bharat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>The GLOFs are <strong>flash floods of extreme magnitude<\/strong> that occur when the <strong>natural dams<\/strong>, made up of ice, rock debris, or moraine, hold back glacial lakes <strong>rupture or are breached<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These <strong>glacial lakes<\/strong> typically form as a <strong>result of the melting of glaciers<\/strong> in high-altitude areas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Causes:<\/strong> The primary <strong>causes<\/strong> of GLOFs include:\n<ul>\n<li>Global warming and glacial melting<\/li>\n<li>Ice or snow avalanches<\/li>\n<li>Earthquakes<\/li>\n<li>Landslides<\/li>\n<li>Volcanic eruptions<\/li>\n<li>Internal water dynamics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vulnerability of India to GLOFs<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There exist <strong>over 54,000 glaciers in the Hindukush-Himalayan ranges<\/strong>\u00a0which are <strong>retreating<\/strong> at alarming rates due to temperature surges in the wake of Climate Change.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>average temperature<\/strong> in the region has <strong>increased by 0.28\u00b0C per decade<\/strong> between 1951 and 2020 which has <strong>hastened the glacial lake formation<\/strong> as well as the glacial retreat.<\/li>\n<li>Scientific assessments and studies indicate the <strong>higher vulnerability of the Eastern Himalayas<\/strong> to GFOFs as compared to the Western Himalayan region, with the former facing twice the risks than the latter.\n<ul>\n<li>It is contended that the <strong>threats would triple by 2050<\/strong> with <strong>more hotspots<\/strong> emerging farther west.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Steps taken by India<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)<\/strong> has initiated a <strong>proactive shift<\/strong> from mere <strong>post-disaster response to risk reduction<\/strong> through its Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CoDRR).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) monitors<\/strong> the <strong>glaciers<\/strong> and provides comprehensive<strong> analysis <\/strong>of<strong> factors<\/strong> that trigger hazards and its associated downstream <strong>risks<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>It has prepared <strong>glacial lake inventories<\/strong> for Uttarakhand (2015) and Himachal Pradesh (2018), identifying <strong>1,266 lakes (7.6 km\u00b2) in Uttarakhand<\/strong> and <strong>958 lakes (9.6 km\u00b2)<\/strong> in Himachal Pradesh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Central Water Commission (CWC)<\/strong> monitors <strong>902 Glacial lakes and water bodies,<\/strong> to enable the detection of relative change in water spread areas of Glacial lakes and water bodies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>National Programme: <\/strong>The <strong>National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Risk Mitigation Project (NGRMP)<\/strong> is implemented in <strong>four states<\/strong> namely, <strong>Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand<\/strong> at a financial outlay of Rs. 150.00 crore.\n<ul>\n<li>It has one of its components as <strong>GLOF monitoring and Early Warning Systems (EWS)<\/strong> including <strong>remote sensing data, community involvement for monitoring, alerting \/ dissemination<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Two <strong>Automatic Weather Stations (AWS)<\/strong> have been installed in <strong>Sikkim<\/strong> with further deployments of <strong>EWS<\/strong> planned in collaboration with C-DAC, ISRO and Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad to provide early warning to local communities in case of any GLOF event.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Risk Indexing of Glacial Lakes<\/strong>: It will be done by the <strong>CWC<\/strong> which will involve <strong>identifying and ranking<\/strong>\u00a0lakes based on their <strong>likelihood of failure and potential damage<\/strong> they could cause in the event of GLOF.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Past Examples of GLOFs in India<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>South Lhonak GLOF<\/strong> in <strong>2023 in Sikkim<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Chamoli floods<\/strong>, Uttarakhand (<strong>2021<\/strong>)- caused by melting of <strong>Nanda Devi glacier<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Chorabari GLOF in 2013,<\/strong> known as the <strong>Kedarnath<\/strong> catastrophe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Recently, Nepal experienced a catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) event which caused a flash flood, and washed away a China-built friendship bridge. About Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) The GLOFs are flash floods of extreme magnitude that occur when the natural dams, made up of ice, rock debris, or moraine, hold back glacial&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/glacial-lake-outburst-floods-glof-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,12023,11209,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-343599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-disaster-management-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-geography-in-news","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}