Within the highly glacierized Karakoram Himalaya situated largely within Pakistan, there have been many cases of catastrophic floods, some the result of river damming by landslide, others the result of river damming by glacier ice with subseguent dam failure. The purpose of this case study is to show, by reference to one particular example, the […]

The climate change issue affects a large number of different aspects of life. In addition, climate change is a global challenge. In other words, in order to be able to withstand the ongoing changes, all sectors, all countries and regions should act as one cohesive organism. Article sums up the Central Asian Conference on Climate Change that has […]

More than 2000 of mountain lakes covering more than 0.1 ha exist in a territory of Kyrgyzstan. Nearly 20% of them are dangerous because of instability of lake dams, frequent overflows and melting of buried ice inside the moraine dams. According to the Kyrgyz lake inventory, 328 lakes are at risk of outburst and 12 […]

The article, based on the catalog of glacial lakes, compiled from satellite images and data of specialized field studies for 2009-2017, presents the results of an assessment of the potential danger of breakthrough glacial lakes as a source of destructive glacial mudflows in the Ile (Zailiisky Alatau). The climatic changes on 6 meteorological stations located […]

Changes in the abundance and area of mountain lakes in the Djungarskiy (Jetysu) Alatau between 2002 and 2014 were investigated using Landsat imagery. The number of lakes increased by 6.2 % from 599 to 636 with a growth rate of 0.51 % a−1. The combined areas were 16.26 ± 0.85 to 17.35 ± 0.92 km2 respectively and the overall change was within the […]

We present a model framework for the regional- scale analysis of high-mountain multi-hazard and -risk in- dicators, implemented with the open-source software pack- age GRASS GIS. This framework is applied to a 98 300km2 study area centred in the Pamir (Tajikistan). It includes (i) rock slides, (ii) ice avalanches, (iii) periglacial debris flows and (iv) […]

One of the most far-reaching glacier-related hazards in the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan is glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and related debris flows. An improved under- standing of the formation and evolution of glacial lakes and debris flow susceptibility is therefore essential to assess and mitigate potential hazards and risks. Non-stationary glacier lakes may […]

Catastrophic mass flows (CMFs) in the glacial environment are an important geomorphic process that may pose significant hazard to communities and infrastructure in glacierized mountains. CMFs form a broad range of glacial hazards and include mass movements of glacial ice, rock avalanches, iceerock avalanches, glacial debris flows, and outburst-generated flows. Broadly, CMFs in the glacial […]

Formation and development of glacial lakes in mountain regions is one of the consequences of glacier recession. Such lakes may drain partially or completely when the stability of their dam is disturbed. We presented a case study from Central-Asian mountain range of Tien Shan, a north-oriented tributary valley Adygine, where a glacier retreat resulted in […]

The Quillcay catchment in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, contains several glacial lakes, including Lakes Palcacocha (with a volume of 17 × 106 m3), Tullparaju (12 × 106 m3), and Cuchillacocha (2 × 106 m3). In 1941 an outburst of Lake Palcacocha, in one of the deadliest historical glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) worldwide, destroyed large […]

Bavarian alpinist and researcher Gottfried Merzbacher discovered an ice-dammed lake in 1903 while trying to reach the mysterious Khan Tengri peak, located where Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and China meet. This lake, which was later named after him, is currently two lakes in the Northern Inylchek Valley. At an altitude of 3300 m and 3400 m above […]

The areas of glacial lakes in the Himalayas continue to increase alarmingly due to global warming with con- sequent risk of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). The outburst is most common for moraine-dammed lakes as a result of a failure of the dam by overtopping and erosion or piping due to seepage. In the present […]