Ministry: Gyirong Port Mudslide Was Triggered by a Glacier Collapse in Nepal

China's Ministry of Natural Resources said Thursday that the mudslide that caused heavy casualties at the Gyirong border port on the China-Nepal frontier Wednesday was triggered by the collapse of a high altitude glacier on the Nepalese side of the border, a finding that has drawn fresh attention to the risks posed by increasingly unstable mountain environments as the climate warms.

How the disaster took shape

Guo Zhaocheng, director of the geological disaster investigation and monitoring center at the China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Natural Resources, said the falling ice and rock raced down a steep slope, picking up loose glacial debris along the way and turning into a debris flow that then entered the Gyirong Zangbo River, becoming the mudslide that struck facilities at Gyirong Port before continuing downstream into Nepal. The debris flow generated by the collapse is estimated to have traveled at about 50 meters per second, a speed so extreme that people had almost no time to react, with its effects reaching more than 20 kilometers from the source, a major factor behind the heavy losses. Guo said the standards for disaster prevention and infrastructure protection on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ought to be set higher than in inland areas.

Rescue forces converge on the site

Specialized rescue teams have been converging on Gyirong since the disaster struck. The Ministry of Emergency Management said a first group of 141 rescuers reached the affected port on Thursday morning, along with a high altitude capable helicopter. China Anneng Construction Group, a centrally administered state enterprise, activated its emergency response as directed by the ministry, mobilizing 310 technical experts and rescue personnel from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing and Lhasa along with 120 sets of equipment including drones, 3D laser scanners, life detection devices and heavy excavation machinery. An eight member advance team from the group reached Gyirong before dawn Thursday and has been tasked with surveying and modeling the upstream barrier lake to support later disposal efforts. The national comprehensive fire and rescue force also arrived in Gyirong county at 2:28 pm Thursday and is continuing on toward the more severely affected Gyirong port to carry out search and rescue work.