MyVista-World

The Himalayas are often described as the “Third Pole” because they contain one of the largest concentrations of snow and ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic. These glaciers are not simply frozen landscapes. They are an important source of water for millions of people, support agriculture and hydropower, and help sustain ecosystems across South Asia. Today, however, the Himalayan ice system is undergoing profound change. A major warning came in March 2026, when the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development reported that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya are losing ice at an accelerating rate, with the rate of ice loss having doubled since 2000. This matters because melting glaciers can create two seemingly opposite problems. In the short term, increased melting can contribute to greater water flows and raise the risk of floods, landslides and glacial lake outburst floods. In the longer term, continued glacier loss can reduce the amount of stored ice available to su...

  The devastating floods that struck Nepal’s northern region in August 2026 have left behind scenes of extraordinary destruction. Villages, roads, bridges and hydropower infrastructure were swept away by a sudden torrent of water, ice, mud and rocks. Rescue teams are still searching for missing people, while the full scale of the damage continues to emerge. But what actually caused such a powerful flood? According to preliminary scientific findings, the disaster was not simply a conventional rainstorm or ordinary river flood. The event began high in the Himalayas, near the Nepal-China border, when a large slope failure involving glacier ice and rock occurred in the mountainous terrain. The United States Geological Survey says the collapse generated energy equivalent to a magnitude 5.2 seismic event and sent a debris flow and flood downstream for approximately 100 kilometres. As the mass of ice and rock moved downhill, it gathered enormous quantities of water, sediment, boulders and...