Pre-collapse satellite data hint at instability before deadly Nepal-Tibet flood
Geophysicist Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech found satellite imagery from days before the 26 August flash flood near the Nepal–Tibet border showing that a glacier section and underlying rock were accelerating in the weeks leading up to the collapse. The disaster, which killed more than 1,000 people and left over 4,000 missing, may have started with a rockslide dragging the glacier down or a glacier failure destabilizing the rocks; the exact sequence remains unclear.