Mountain Research and Development · 1986 · 81 citations · 2 references
Natural ResourcesEarth SciencesHydrologyGlacier HydrologyGlaciologySnow HydrologyFluvial FloodingGlacial HydrologyGlacier Drainage SystemsGlacier DynamicsMountain GlaciersWater FlowAvalanchesGlacial HazardsGlacial Lake DrainageGlacial Lake Outburst FloodsLake Outburst FloodingMoraine-dammed Lake Outburst FloodsSubglacial FloodsSubglacial Outburst Floods
On 4 August 1985 an outburst of a glacial lake occurred in the Khumbu area of eastern Nepal above Namche Bazar. Such flash-floods must be anticipated in heavily glacierized mountain regions. They are of several kinds: (1) the catastrophic outbreak of lakes dammed by a glacier, or the outbreak of ponded melt-water from beneath or within a glacier system; (2) the overspill of lakes frontal to a glacier that have been dammed by old end moraines; and (3) the sudden drainage of ephemeral lakes dammed by landslides, rockfalls, or by snow or ice avalanches, that have blocked the main channel of a river. The results of
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