TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A bridge was destroyed and village flooded on Saturday by a raging river in Northern Pakistan.
It happened in the Hunza district village of Hassanabad in the Gilgit-Baltistan Region.
This phenomenon is called a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood, or GLOF for short. The Federal Minister of Climate Change in Pakistan warned of potential GLOF’s just days before the event.
It happens when a mountain glacier rapidly melts, causing a glacial lake to overflow, breach the dam and cascade down the mountains into the valley.
Hundreds of towns and villages around the World are threatened by these disasters, which are increasing.
In just the past three weeks, the size of Shisper Glacial Lake grew by 40%. This is due to several weeks of record-breaking heat across Pakistan and India. One city in the region hit 120 degrees. The heatwave is expected to intensify this week, with highs up to 122 degrees.
Since the mid-1900s, Glaciers have lost an average of 100 feet of ice thickness – with a 22% acceleration in ice loss per decade.
And just since 1990, glacial lakes have grown in volume and number by 50%. In this area about 3,000 glacial lakes have formed.
Much of this is due to global warming—which has already doubled the chance of severe heatwaves in this region.
By the end of the century, the risk of heatwaves here is projected to increase tenfold, putting more towns— like the one below in the Hunza Valley—at risk of glacial floods.