Witness the jaw-dropping story of the Langtang Lirung glacier disaster, where a mountain-sized chunk of ice triggered unstoppable destruction! Find out how cascading hazards work, why the Himalayas are so dangerous, and what this means for the future. Don't miss this wild ride—subscribe for more epic stories and tell us in the comments what moment amazed you most! #disaster #Himalayas #science #nature #documentary
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:11 - Introduction and Disaster Overview
1:33 - Geology of the Himalayas
2:40 - Warning Signs and Past Disasters
4:11 - Collapse and Initial Catastrophe
6:41 - Secondary Hazards and Worsening Disaster
9:51 - Aftermath, Rescue, and Human Impact
12:26 - Ongoing Dangers and Cascading Hazards
15:45 - Lessons, Warnings, and Conclusion
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:11 - Introduction and Disaster Overview
1:33 - Geology of the Himalayas
2:40 - Warning Signs and Past Disasters
4:11 - Collapse and Initial Catastrophe
6:41 - Secondary Hazards and Worsening Disaster
9:51 - Aftermath, Rescue, and Human Impact
12:26 - Ongoing Dangers and Cascading Hazards
15:45 - Lessons, Warnings, and Conclusion
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:11this is really ma ma ma leave leave yay yay yeah guys it's still live so hurrah the whole
00:21dam is bursting at 8 37 in the morning august 26 2026 a massive chunk of ice as big as
00:31a small
00:32mountain suddenly gave way it fell from the northern part of langtang lirung one of the
00:38major mountains of the himalayas in nepal which stands at about 5 600 meters above sea level
00:45in just a few seconds it dropped 1200 meters straight into a valley with a river a place that
00:52had never experienced a disaster of this magnitude before when it finally stopped more than 900 people
00:59had lost their lives and thousands more were missing and a valley that for generations had
01:05been home to people with bridges a hydroelectric power station temples and houses seemed to suddenly
01:13disappear this is the story of how it happened minute by minute and why it could happen again
01:21but before we begin if you're new to our channel please click the subscribe button and also hit
01:28the notification bell so you'll always be updated with our latest videos to understand what happened
01:34in raswa district we first need to understand what the himalayas really are the formation of these
01:40mountains is not yet finished most of the mountain ranges in the world are already old they have
01:47long been eroding and gradually decreasing in height over time but the himalayas are still young
01:53it continues to rise by a few millimeters each year because the indian tectonic plate collides with
02:01and pushes beneath asia because of this much of the rock in the area is cracked the slopes are also
02:09very steep and the glaciers clinging to the mountains rest on unstable ground langtang lirum stands above
02:17langtang national park a vast area full of mountains and nature located between nepal and the tibet
02:24autonomous region of china this is not some obscure mountain its appearance is familiar to trekkers
02:32to buddhist pilgrims heading to tibet and to the people of tagaraswa who have lived for centuries under the
02:38shadow of this mountain for years scientists have been warning about glaciers like this as temperatures
02:46continue to rise around the world the ice in high places doesn't just melt from the surface down
02:52it also loses its stability from within water from the melting ice seeps into tiny cracks in the glacier
03:01and the rocks beneath it this process of freezing and melting happens repeatedly until the once solid
03:08ice and rock gradually weaken and break apart the glacier which looks frozen and permanent from a
03:15trekking trail may actually be slowly gradually giving way year after year even before anyone notices
03:22any significant change langtang itself has a tragic history of disasters in 2015 a powerful earthquake
03:32triggered a massive avalanche that buried a large part of langtang village and claimed the lives of
03:38hundreds of people in just one afternoon the valley was rebuilt the lodges reopened and the trekkers
03:46returned but the mountain above it never stopped being one of the most active and unstable parts of the
03:54entire himalayan range after 11 years it happened again the cause was different but it was the same
04:03mountain and the same valley the same families who had survived a great disaster once again faced another
04:10one on the morning of august 26 the mountain gave way what fell from langtang lirung was not just ordinary
04:18ice it was a huge mass of ice mixed with rocks that broke off from the side of the mountain
04:24and fell down
04:26over a kilometer down towards the source of a small stream called lende lende cola the impact was so strong
04:35that it was recorded by seismic monitors as if it were an earthquake later the united states geological
04:42survey recorded the event and estimated that it had a seismic signature equivalent to a magnitude 5.2
04:48earthquake even though no fault line moved that was the sound of a mountain losing a large part of itself
04:55the ice and rocks that fell did not remain intact when they hit the ground it was crushed mixed with
05:02snow
05:03and melting water and turned into something like wet cement rushing at highway speed this is what
05:10geologists call a debris flow this is one of the most destructive forces in the mountains because it
05:18doesn't just flood a valley it drags and destroys everything in its path based on independent analyst
05:25analysis of the seismic data it is estimated that the front of the debris flow moved at an average speed
05:31of approximately 193 kilometers per hour hour in its first 22 kilometers that's faster than the speed
05:40a formula one car can reach on a straight part of the track in a valley surrounded by the steep
05:47walls
05:47of a canyon it had nowhere to slow down and there was also not enough time for anyone in its
05:53path to escape
05:55the debris flow poured from lende lende cola and crashed into the botakoshi river at the rasuwa rasuagadi
06:02border crossing this is also the crossing used by pilgrims going to mount kailash in tibet
06:08from there it continued southward and followed the pull of gravity it went down the botakoshi river
06:15towards trishian the downstream villages have no sirens or warning systems made for something moving
06:26this fast later survivor said it sounded like thunder that wouldn't stop this was followed by a huge wall
06:36of brown water that arrived before they could even understand what they were seeing the trishuli river which
06:43usually rises and falls slowly depending on the season rose by nine meters in just 30 minutes nine
06:51meters in half an hour imagine the water level in your yard suddenly rising as high as a three-story
06:59building in just the time you usually spend eating breakfast about three hours after the first collapse
07:07seismic monitors picked up a second signal this aftershock in the debris was smaller equivalent to
07:14about a magnitude 4.2 earthquake it was a sign that the mountains movement wasn't over yet the ground
07:21itself continued to adjust after a large part of the mountain disappeared when the debris flow finally lost
07:27its strength researchers estimated that it traveled a total distance of almost 100 kilometers this means that
07:35the material from a collapse near a mountain with a height of 5600 meters traveled almost the same distance as
07:43from london to birmingham while destroying almost everything in its path this is the part of the disaster that
07:51most people usually don't hear about and this is also the part that made everything even worse when there's
07:57that much debris ice rocks mud and fallen trees rushing down a narrow valley that fast not all of it
08:06just
08:07flows down the river some parts of it pile up in the hours after the initial collapse the remaining debris
08:16clogged a narrow part of the valley and formed what scientists call a debris dam it's an unplanned and
08:24unstable wall it's an unstable wall formed from the very materials of the disaster that created it behind this
08:29wall water continues to accumulate it had nowhere else to go so it did what water usually does it waited
08:38and kept
08:39pushing for almost two days the temporary dam held back a growing lake filled with flood water water from melting
08:49ice and
08:50debris and with each passing hour it became more and more unstable the communities downstream who had already
08:59lost almost everything in the first raging flood now faced a second threat they couldn't see a dam with no
09:07engineers no spillway and no plan around nine in the morning on august 28 it finally gave way suddenly
09:16releasing the accumulated water that caused a second massive wave of flooding that rushed back into the
09:22botakoshi and trishuli river systems it hit the communities that were still searching through the mud for
09:29survivors from the first wave of flooding this is what scientists call a cascading hazard a disaster doesn't
09:38just happen and then end it causes another disaster a new one and with each new event the situation
09:46becomes more dangerous because the area has already been devastated by the previous disaster the footage
09:52shown on television during the first two days made the extent of the damage clearer than any number or
09:58statistics houses almost completely buried in gray mud up to the roof a steel bridge built to withstand many
10:07years of strong monsoons was torn from its foundation and swept down the river like it was just a piece
10:13of rope excavators are working alongside rescue teams in some areas they are no longer searching for
10:20survivors they are only looking for confirmation now when the search operations became more organized
10:27nepal's national disaster risk reduction and management authority confirmed more than 900 deaths
10:34the number continues to rise as more bodies keep appearing on the other side of the border around 560
10:42people are still missing in the tibet autonomous region if the missing people in nepal are included
10:49authorities on both sides of the border estimate that more than 3 000 people are still unaccounted for
10:56among the missing is something even harder to imagine hundreds of workers at hydroelectric power
11:03construction sites along the trishuli corridor this is an industry that nepal has been building for
11:09two decades as one of the main pillars of its economy the rivers that were supposed to provide electricity
11:15and help secure the country's future are the same waters that suddenly turned against it the hardest hit
11:22districts rasua newakot and dating are rural and mountainous areas that are difficult to reach even under
11:31normal conditions roads were washed away bridges disappeared and domestic flights were halted for
11:38several days rescue helicopters became almost the only way to get in and out of the affected areas
11:46they were used to evacuate survivors from villages that no longer had roads connecting them to other
11:53parts of the country and then came a detail that was almost too difficult to say out loud
11:59the morgues in nepal ran out of space the process of identifying the victims faced massive delays due to
12:07the scale of the disaster and the difficult conditions of the area officials said the country does not have
12:15enough refrigeration capacity to store and identify and properly process the number of bodies being recovered
12:23by the rescue teams some of these were found several kilometers from where they were swept away others
12:30even reached neighboring india they were swept away by the same current that destroyed the villages where
12:36they came from nepal's finance minister estimated that the total economic damage would reach hundreds of
12:43millions of dollars this is a huge amount for a country whose national budget is small compared to its wealthier
12:51neighboring countries for journalists reporting directly from the disaster site this also became a major
12:59logistical problem a freelance filmmaker covering the disaster shared that he was at a press conference when
13:08the country's foreign minister directly stated that they had no evidence showing there was a systemic failure
13:15the situation is under control however there aren't enough refrigerators in nepal for the number of victims
13:24and dna identification for the bodies that have not yet been identified will take longer than anyone would
13:31directly admit among the missing according to officials are foreign trekkers and pilgrims passing through the area on
13:40their way to the towns these tourists chose to travel in late august a time that was previously
13:47considered safer and more stable during the monsoon season but the mountains they visited have only now
13:55shown how truly unstable they are the world health organization has also issued its own warning even after the
14:03temporary dam gave way and the second big wave of flooding passed the danger in rasuwa is not yet over
14:12researchers monitoring the area noticed a new lake starting to form in the debris field left by the first
14:18collapse water is collecting in a basin that was itself created by the disaster if this new lake suddenly and
14:27forcefully gives way it could cause a third major flood in the communities downstream and these communities
14:35have almost no remaining infrastructure and warning systems they need to survive this is the main
14:41characteristic of what scientists call cascading natural hazards disasters like these don't just end
14:48quickly the collapse of a glacier becomes a debris flow the debris flow becomes a dam and the dam becomes
14:55a
14:56second flood the second flood the second flood leaves behind a new lake and the new lake then becomes the
15:01next threat sometimes this lasts for several weeks other times it takes several years the rescue teams were
15:09forced to stop search operations several times because the water in the new lake was rising they have to
15:16weigh the risk of more rescuers getting harmed against the need to continue searching for the missing
15:23after a disaster of this magnitude when many people lose their homes crowd into evacuation areas and water
15:30and sanitation systems are destroyed the risk of disease outbreaks increases and this can become a new
15:37crisis adding to the initial disaster the year in nepal was not peaceful even before this incident happened
15:44in the 12 months before the collapse in langtang the monsoon season had already brought landslides
15:51and flash floods that claimed many lives in separate incidents these happened in baglong district
15:58in elam in the koshi river basin and even in the katmandu valley itself officials had previously called
16:06the past floods the worst disasters of their respective years but just a few months later their assessment
16:12was proven wrong this pattern is not a coincidence it is a warning about the future nepal is located where
16:21two forces meet both dangerous and when combined they can be extremely destructive the first is
16:28geological young mountains that are not yet fully stable made up of rocks that easily crumble and
16:37surrounded by rivers that drop thousands of meters in just a few kilometers the second is the climate a
16:45warming atmosphere that is melting ice in high altitude areas faster than most monitoring systems
16:51designed for this can keep up with the scientific team studying the incident in langtang including
16:59researchers using cascading hazards and sustainable hazards or clasp the framework says that this is
17:07exactly the kind of chain reaction the region should expect to happen more frequently as the world
17:13continues to warm a small failure high on the mountain can travel up to 100 kilometers change form three
17:23or four times before finally ending and leaving behind new dangers that remain long after the news cameras are
17:31gone nepal is a poor country situated between two giants india and china its national budget is too small to
17:41build advanced early warning infrastructure that wealthier mountainous countries like switzerland and austria
17:48have been using for decades there are no glacial lake monitoring sensors in langtang there is also no
17:56automated alert system that could warn the villages in rasawa that nine meters of water is coming from
18:01above in just half an hour and in many places that are highly exposed to this kind of disaster such
18:09systems are rare at the time of this recording search and rescue operations are still ongoing in the debris
18:15fields along the trishuli corridor bodies are still being recovered and families are still waiting to learn the
18:23identity and status of their loved ones the government of nepal together with aid organizations and
18:30neighboring countries are working together to rebuild roads restore electricity and deliver emergency
18:37supplies including food medical kits and tents to districts that still haven't been reached satellite
18:44imaging companies have also been tasked to map the entire corridor from orbit they are trying to
18:50understand a landscape that has changed so quickly that the old maps are now inaccurate but the deeper
18:56question left by this disaster is not just about rasua this is about all the mountain communities
19:03living beneath glaciers that scientists have long been concerned about there is more ice in the himalayas
19:10than anywhere else in the world outside the polar regions and hundreds millions of people living
19:17downstream depend on the water that comes from this melting ice what happened in langtang liram on august 26
19:25was not simply an unusual event it is a clear example of what can happen when a warming world an
19:33unstable
19:34mountain and the lack of a warning system come together the glacier that collapsed that morning had probably
19:41been slowly been slowly giving way for many years quietly and unseen long before the people living in the valley
19:48below realized they had something to fear the tragedy of the disaster in nepal in 2026 was not just about
19:57the
19:57things it destroyed what's even more frightening is the fact that almost none of it was truly impossible to
20:03predict the mountains had been giving warnings for a long time but no one below was listening because
20:09people there had no way to hear those warnings in a place above rasua district tonight the remaining
20:16part of langtang liram still stands it continues to crack it continues to melt from within in the same way
20:25it did before the morning of august 26 and somewhere below it a new lake is quietly continuing to fill
20:34with
20:34water waiting for what will happen next
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