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A new article published in Nature Geoscience reports on the massive collapse of two adjacent glaciers in western Tibet in July and September 2016, leading to an unprecedented pair of giant low-angle ice avalanches.

Published in Nature Geoscience (online on 22 January 2018), the article ‘Massive collapse of two glaciers in western Tibet in 2016 after surge-like instability’ elaborates that the twin collapses were caused by climate- and weather-driven external forcing, acting on specific polythermal and soft-bed glacier properties. 

The findings show that large catastrophic instabilities of low-angle glaciers can happen under rare circumstances without historical precedent. Among the authors is Christian Huggel, member of the MRI's Scientific Leadership Council.

Andreas Kääb, Silvan Leinss, Adrien Gilbert, Yves Bühler, Simon Gascoin, Stephen G. Evans, Perry Bartelt, Etienne Berthier, Fanny Brun, Wei-An Chao, Daniel Farinotti, Florent Gimbert, Wanqin Guo, Christian Huggel, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Gregory J. Leonard, Lide Tian, Désirée Treichler & Tandong Yao: Massive collapse of two glaciers in western Tibet in 2016 after surge-like instability. Nature Geoscience (2018), doi:10.1038/s41561-017-0039-7.

The full article is available for download here.

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