Tibetan Ice Avalanche 3.7 Miles Long, 100 Feet Deep; Another 2 Months Later "Unprecedented"
n ice avalanche stretching 3.7 miles and burying the land in up to 98 feet of ice is weird. A second one in almost the exact same location just a few months later is essentially unheard of.
And yet that’s exactly what happened in a remote corner of Tibet in late September, when a second massive jumble of ice and rock ripped across the landscape. The second avalanche is just a few miles away from the first one, which occurred on July 17.
“Even one of these gigantic glacier avalanches is very unusual,” Andreas Kääb, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo, told NASA Earth Observatory, which published a new set of images. “Two of them within close geographical and temporal vicinity is, to our best knowledge, unprecedented.”
The first avalanche was likely caused by a glacial surge, which causes glaciers to start flowing up to 100 times faster than they normally do. Weather conditions immediately preceding that avalanche don’t appear to have played much of a role as it was cooler than normal and relatively dry. Scientists have suggested that meltwater underneath the glacier that started flowing heavily in September 2015 could have ultimately led to the ice slide. Whether something similar happened with the second ice avalanche remains to be seen and the window to do fieldwork is rapidly closing as winter draws nearer. But the Earth Observatory notes that blue pools of water near where the slide began indicates it could be a cause.
EDIT
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/tibet-ice-avalanche-20822