Go Nepal e-Magazine

areas and there was damage in the Everest region
again.
Officials said a small glacial pond near Mount Everest
burst its containment on Monday night, causing
panic among villagers because they fear the
earthquake and aftershocks may have destabilized
bigger glacial lakes in the region.
Geologists say the quakes triggered more than
3,000 landslides in the affected areas and the upcoming
monsoon could worsen conditions.
“The reason why the mountains remain unstable
is that earthquakes cause intense shaking of the
landscape, which damages the rock and soils on
hillsides,” says Prof Alex Densmore from the Institute
of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at Durham
University in the UK.
“This means that even hillsides that did not fail
during the earthquake are more damaged, and
thus more prone to failure, than they were before
25 April.
“In some cases this damage may be visible at the
surface in the form of cracks or fractures in the
ground, but this is not necessarily the case; the
damage may be at depth and not immediately visible.”
Prof Jeffrey Kargel, a glaciologist at the University
of Arizona who has studied landslides on Nepalese
mountains and their impacts on rivers, says an
assessment of the situation is absolutely critical.
“We have seen so much activity of the earth following
the main shock and the largest aftershock
that we have to presume that there is going to be
a state of greatly heightened activity during this
monsoon, and quite possibly into coming years,”
he said.
“It’s very clear that we have to do what’s possible,
not just to keep trekkers and climbers safe, but
also the people who service the trekkers and climbers
and the entire economic structure of these very
hard-hit areas.”
But given Nepal’s difficult topography in the
Himalayan region, assessing the risks would not be
easy.
“It will take quite a bit of work because every
valley, every glacier, every mountain is going to be
different depending on the circumstances of the
glaciers, the moraines and possible fracturing of
the rocks,” Prof Kargel said.
International tour operators are waiting and
watching as well.
“To rush out and simply say it’s safe to come to
Nepal without factual knowledge is a little bit foolhardy,
potentially,” said Nicholas Cowlie, Nepal
general manager for Intrepid Travel - the largest
international provider of trekking tourists to the
country.
“At this point, our clients are holding on to their
(Nepal) holiday bookings and our major focus is
to report back to them and show them that we are
ready for business when we know that it is operationally
safe.” (BBC World Service)