The Alaknanda river in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, was flooded after a part of a Himalayan glacier broke off.
The glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an exceptional rate, according to new research that shows the ice sheets have shrunk 10 times faster in the past four decades than during the previous seven centuries.
Mass ice loss from the Himalayas is especially rapid compared to other parts of the world, according to research published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports.
The third pole is the Himalayan mountains, because they hold the world's third-largest amount of glacier ice. Millions of people in South Asia will be affected by the ice melt, which will contribute to rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities across the world.
The Himalayan glaciers have lost 40% of their area in the last several hundred years, which is enough to raise global sea levels by about one millimeter.
Climate change has resulted in accelerated ice melt from glaciers and polar ice sheets, as well as higher ocean temperatures across the globe, according to scientific consensus.
The primary driver is a rapidly changing climate, and the Himalayan glaciers don't seem to be able to adjust fast enough to keep up with the climate changes, according to Jonathan Carrivick, a University of Leeds glaciologist and a co-author of the study.
The ice loss in the Himalayas may have been caused by shifts in the South Asian monsoon.
According to NASA satellite data, global sea levels are expected to rise between 2 and 6 feet by the end of the century.
If globalwarming reaches around 3 degrees Celsius, or 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists warn that a dangerous amount of sea level rise will occur. The Earth is warming at a rate of 1 degree Celsius.
