WASHINGTON — The cause of the deadly landslide and flood along the Nepal-Tibet border isn’t yet certain, but experts say the dangers associated with such events are compounded by the region’s extreme topography, with risks rising due to climate change.

These hazards include glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) – the sudden and catastrophic release of vast volumes of water from melting glacier-fed lakes.

The flash floods and landslides killed at least 165 people and swept away entire villages. Videos from the region showed a terrifying wall of mud overwhelm buildings and toss vehicles like toys.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal initially said an earthquake likely triggered a landslide that in turn blocked a river, sending water gushing downstream after it eventually breached the obstruction.

But in an updated note, the US Geological Survey said that while the event was initially reported as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake, “additional analysis of long period seismic waves indicate that the seismic energy was instead generated by a glacial collapse and debris flow.”

Dorothy Heinrich, a researcher at the UK’s University of Reading, told AFP that GLOFs were among the hazards posed by a warming planet in the region.

“We do know what climate change trends look like in the Himalayas. There is high confidence of more heat waves, glacial retreat, permafrost reduction, these sorts of things that can drive things like landslides and glacial outburst floods,” she said.

But to determine whether a particular event is linked to climate change, scientists carry out what are known as attribution studies, which use simulations to compare how likely an event was in the fossil-fuel-warmed climate of today, versus the pre-industrial era.

A previous glacial outburst flood occurred in July 2025, originating in China’s Gyirong County, then surging into Nepal’s Rasuwa District.