Browsing by Author "Prabhakar Rai"

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The Sikkim flood of October 2023: Drivers, causes, and impacts of a multihazard cascade
(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2025) Ashim Sattar; Kristen L. Cook; Shashi Kant Rai; Etienne Berthier; Simon Keith Allen; Sonam Rinzin; Max S. van Wyk de Vries; Wilfried Haeberli; Pradeep Kushwaha; Dan H. Shugar; Adam Emmer; Umesh K. Haritashya; Holger Frey; Praful Rao; Kori Sanjay Kumar Gurudin; Prabhakar Rai; Rajeev Rajak; Faruk Hossain; Christian Huggel; Martin Mergili; Mohd Farooq Azam; Simon Gascoin; Jonathan Lee Carrivick; Louie Elliot Bell; R. K. Ranjan; Irfan Rashid; Anil V. Kulkarni; David N. Petley; Wolfgang Schwanghart; C. Scott Watson; Nazimul Islam; Moushumi Das Gupta; Stuart N. Lane; Shahid Younis Bhat
On 3 October 2023, a multihazard cascade in the Sikkim Himalaya, India, was triggered by 14.7 million cubic meters of frozen lateral moraine collapsing into South Lhonak Lake. The impact generated an ~20-meter tsunami-like impact wave, which breached the moraine and drained ~50 million cubic meters of the lake’s water. The ensuing glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) eroded ~270 million cubic meters of sediment, which overwhelmed infrastructure, including hydropower installations along the Teesta River. The physical scale and human and economic impacts of this event prompt urgent reflection on the role of climate change and human activities in exacerbating such disasters. Insights into multihazard evolution are pivotal for informing policy development, enhancing early warning systems (EWS), and spurring paradigm shifts in GLOF risk management strategies in the Himalaya and other mountain environments. © 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.