Climate Change likely caused deadly July Tibet avalanche

Washington: Climate change may be to blame for the deadly avalanche in Tibet this year which claimed the nine lives, a new study has found.

On July 17, more than 70 million tonnes of ice broke off from the Aru glacier in the mountains of western Tibet and tumbled into a valley below, taking the lives of nine nomadic yak herders living there. The most important fact about the avalanche was that it lasted only four or five minutes, yet it managed to bury 3.7 square miles of the valley floor in that time, researchers said.

Something, likely meltwater at the base of the glacier must have lubricated the ice to speed its flow down the mountain, said Lonnie Thompson, a research scientist.