Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,234 studies31 sourcesUpdated 24 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDAdvances in Climate Change Research

Transboundary outburst floods from giant supraglacial lakes over the Himalayan China–Nepal border

  • Taigang Zhang1,2
  • Weicai Wang1,2
  • Nitesh Khadka3
  • Ioannis Kougkoulos4
  • Simon J. Cook5,6
  • Cameron Scott Watson7
  • Yang Gao2
  • Sheng-Hai LI2
  • Xiao YANG8
  • Zhongyan Wang1,9,2
  • Bao-Sheng An1,9,2
  • Tonghao Yao1,2
9 affiliations
  1. 1Big Science Center, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  2. 2State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  3. 3Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
  4. 4Department of Science and Mathematics, Deree—The American College of Greece, Athens 15342, Greece
  5. 5Division of Energy, Environment and Society, University of Dundee, Dundee DD14HN, UK
  6. 6UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, University of Dundee, Dundee DD14HN, United Kingdom
  7. 7School of Geography and water@leeds, University of Leeds, Leeds LS29JT, UK
  8. 8Water Resources Bureau of Nyalam County, Lhasa 850011, China
  9. 9Lhasa Earth System Multi-Dimension Observatory Network, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lhasa 850032, China
Open at sourceDOICite

Abstract

Supraglacial lakes are widespread on Himalayan debris-covered glaciers, yet their drainage, including glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), remains sparsely observed. Based on field surveys, remote sensing analysis, and interviews with local residents, we documented two exceptional supraglacial GLOFs that occurred along the China–Nepal border near Mt. Xixabangma in 2025, resulting in severe transboundary impacts. On 7 July 2025, a giant supraglacial lake (0.64 ± 0.02 km 2 in area, 11.8 × 10 6 m 3 in volume) on the Nielangpu Glacier, 24 km upstream of Nyalam county, drained through an englacial conduit following the hydrofracture of its ice dam, releasing ∼3.84 × 10 6 m 3 of water over ∼30 h. Inefficient englacial drainage produced a low-magnitude GLOF that caused no measurable downstream river channel erosion, nor damage to settlements. Tragically, On 8 July 2025, a second supraglacial GLOF occurred on the Purepu Glacier, located 16 km northwest of Nielangpu. This lake of comparable size (0.68 ± 0.03 km 2 , 9.09 × 10 6 m 3 ) released ∼7.22 × 10 6 m 3 of water within ∼35 h. The high-energy outflow initially traveled over the glacier surface and a downstream gorge, triggering an extreme hydrological response. Severe loss of life, infrastructure damage, and channel erosion were caused by this event, and inland transportation between China and Nepal was disrupted. Both the failed lakes were at least an order of magnitude larger than typical Himalayan supraglacial lakes. Their formation and eventual outburst reflect the combined influence of short-term weather forcing and longer-term climatic drivers, probably acting through glacier-wide differential ablation, tributary-induced dynamic blocking, perturbed englacial drainage networks, rapid meltwater impoundment, and powerful hydrofracturing. A full understanding of these unprecedented GLOF mechanisms highlights the urgent need to strengthen supraglacial lake monitoring and pertinent risk management within existing frameworks.

Related

  1. IceWatch: a multimodal deep-learning framework for monitoring glacial lake outburst floods, evaluated at Shisper Glacier, Karakoram
    Zuha Fatima, Muhammad Anser Sohaib, Muhammad Talha +3
    EGUspherePreprintCC BY 4.0General earth scienceEGUsphere
  2. Advancing Methods to Monitor Greenland Ice-Marginal Lake Area Fluctuations and Outburst Floods Using Machine Learning and Multispectral Optical Imagery
    Ethan P. Carr, Alison F. Banwell, Mark Serreze +15
    EGUspherePreprintCC BY 4.0General earth scienceEGUsphere
  3. Unraveling daily dynamics of supraglacial lakes in response to hydrological pulses and anomalous climate signals
    Jian Song, Haijun Qiu, Adam Emmer +5
    Nature CommunicationsPeer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND5 citedAtmospheric science & meteorologyOpenAlex
  4. Interannual and seasonal evolution of supraglacial drainage systems on Nivlisen Ice Shelf, East Antarctica
    Jiao Chen, Rebecca A. Hodge, Stewart S. R. Jamieson +1
    The CryospherePeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textAtmospheric science & meteorologyCrossref
  5. Spatial modelling of cetacean habitats and cumulative anthropogenic pressures in the Caribbean: implications for transboundary marine governance
    Lindo Woudenberg
    HALPreprintLicence not statedEnvironmental science & pollutionHAL

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{zhang2026transboundary,
  title = {{Transboundary outburst floods from giant supraglacial lakes over the Himalayan China–Nepal border}},
  author = {Taigang Zhang and Weicai Wang and Nitesh Khadka and Ioannis Kougkoulos and Simon J. Cook and Cameron Scott Watson and Yang Gao and Sheng-Hai LI and Xiao YANG and Zhongyan Wang and Bao-Sheng An and Tonghao Yao},
  journal = {Advances in Climate Change Research},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.1016/j.accre.2026.06.022},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accre.2026.06.022},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Transboundary outburst floods from giant supraglacial lakes over the Himalayan China–Nepal border
AU  - Taigang Zhang
AU  - Weicai Wang
AU  - Nitesh Khadka
AU  - Ioannis Kougkoulos
AU  - Simon J. Cook
AU  - Cameron Scott Watson
AU  - Yang Gao
AU  - Sheng-Hai LI
AU  - Xiao YANG
AU  - Zhongyan Wang
AU  - Bao-Sheng An
AU  - Tonghao Yao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/29
JO  - Advances in Climate Change Research
DO  - 10.1016/j.accre.2026.06.022
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accre.2026.06.022
AB  - Supraglacial lakes are widespread on Himalayan debris-covered glaciers, yet their drainage, including glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), remains sparsely observed. Based on field surveys, remote sensing analysis, and interviews with local residents, we documented two exceptional supraglacial GLOFs that occurred along the China–Nepal border near Mt. Xixabangma in 2025, resulting in severe transboundary impacts. On 7 July 2025, a giant supraglacial lake (0.64 ± 0.02 km 2 in area, 11.8 × 10 6 m 3 in volume) on the Nielangpu Glacier, 24 km upstream of Nyalam county, drained through an englacial conduit following the hydrofracture of its ice dam, releasing ∼3.84 × 10 6 m 3 of water over ∼30 h. Inefficient englacial drainage produced a low-magnitude GLOF that caused no measurable downstream river channel erosion, nor damage to settlements. Tragically, On 8 July 2025, a second supraglacial GLOF occurred on the Purepu Glacier, located 16 km northwest of Nielangpu. This lake of comparable size (0.68 ± 0.03 km 2 , 9.09 × 10 6 m 3 ) released ∼7.22 × 10 6 m 3 of water within ∼35 h. The high-energy outflow initially traveled over the glacier surface and a downstream gorge, triggering an extreme hydrological response. Severe loss of life, infrastructure damage, and channel erosion were caused by this event, and inland transportation between China and Nepal was disrupted. Both the failed lakes were at least an order of magnitude larger than typical Himalayan supraglacial lakes. Their formation and eventual outburst reflect the combined influence of short-term weather forcing and longer-term climatic drivers, probably acting through glacier-wide differential ablation, tributary-induced dynamic blocking, perturbed englacial drainage networks, rapid meltwater impoundment, and powerful hydrofracturing. A full understanding of these unprecedented GLOF mechanisms highlights the urgent need to strengthen supraglacial lake monitoring and pertinent risk management within existing frameworks.
SN  - 1674-9278
SN  - 2524-1761
ER  -