Nepal’s devastating floods reveal the danger of ‘cascading hazards’ in Himalayas

Hundreds are dead or missing after devastating floods swept the Nepal-Tibet border region, and The Conversation reports the disaster began with the collapse of a slope and glacier high in Tibet. That collapse sent a huge mass of ice, rock, water and debris crashing down into the river system below, and scientists say describing it simply as a flood misses the fuller picture. As the outlet explains, the same river corridor saw serious flooding in 2025 that destroyed a Nepal-China friendship bridge, and researchers now warn that each disaster reshapes the landscape, leaving altered channels and unstable slopes that will shape how the next one unfolds.

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