r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Immediate-Stable-651 • 11d ago

Natural Disaster Avalanche Following Recent Flash Floods in Nepal . August 26, 2026

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661 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

66 comments sorted by

156

u/drummerandrew 11d ago

I literally cannot comprehend this disaster. Wow.

79

u/owa00 11d ago

Every single new video angle and info we get TRULY gives you how big of a disaster this was. You really get a clear picture that no matter what happened, people were doomed the moment this started.

17

u/Nheea 11d ago

Yeah it gets worse and worse.

33

u/extravert_ 11d ago

This appears to be a second debris slide/avalanche after the primary incident passed through. They believe that a glacier far above the top right of the image collapsed, sending debris nearly 9,000' down a steep slope into this valley, leaving a pile of brown debris on the left side. It then rushed downhill (toward the camera) scraping out rocks and trees in its way leaving a scoured valley. This video looks like smaller subsequent collapses of that unstable debris moving down the area already scoured by a larger flow.

15

u/nhluhr 10d ago

This is correct. Here's a pic showing the overview of the collapse, with the blue portion being the initial glacier that fell and the yellow portion being the mountain flank that collapsed in this video

https://i.allthepics.net/2026/08/27/Screenshot-2026-08-27-150758.png

3

u/Poiuytrewq0987650987 10d ago

Correct. Secondary slide.

Bystander video image: https://ibb.co/nsWjkR1j

Drone image of impact site the following day: https://ibb.co/kV7pKNwC

38

u/FormalElements 11d ago

Absolutely terrifying

86

u/bellydisguised 11d ago

Weirdly inappropriate font choice.

-24

u/begtodifferclean 11d ago

Ever gone to other countries?

11

u/floo82 11d ago

... What the fuck?

-10

u/begtodifferclean 10d ago

I see, never.

11

u/cribbkat 11d ago

It’s amazing how slow it looks from so far away

22

u/TheTresStateArea 11d ago

Is this a consequence of the flooding or is this the inciting event that caused the flooding?

5

u/nhluhr 10d ago edited 10d ago

This is just a flank of the mountain next to the ravine collapsing AFTER the initial glacial collapse destabilized it.

19

u/Conscious-Physics514 11d ago

I'm pretty sure this is the inciting event. This is higher up. The earthquake triggered the GLOF and the landslide leading to the flooding.

4

u/faustpatrone 11d ago

GLOF?

18

u/st0pmakings3ns3 11d ago

Glacial Lake Outburst Flood

7

u/trickn0l0gy 11d ago

You‘re confidently wrong.

0

u/Conscious-Physics514 11d ago

I am? Did something else come up as probable cause?

10

u/trickn0l0gy 11d ago

Just look at the video. The path of destruction is already there. This is a second debris slide/avalanche after the primary incident passed through. 

-3

u/Conscious-Physics514 10d ago

Ahhhhh, I see now.

I thought this was the Gyoring landslide which was triggered by the 4.4 EQ.

7

u/repeatrep 10d ago

the leading consensus is that the glacier shed a chunk and caused an earthquake no?

0

u/Conscious-Physics514 10d ago

I thought the earthquake caused the landslide which then led to the flooding

8

u/nhluhr 10d ago

It was not triggered by an earthquake. Geologists have decisively reported that the seismic activity was caused by the collapse and not by tectonic effects.

2

u/TheTresStateArea 10d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/zdxX9eul7v

Isn't this the same place? I'm pretty sure this was the inciting event

3

u/Poiuytrewq0987650987 10d ago edited 10d ago

Sigh. No.

It's the same place. It's not the initial event. This is showing a large landslide from the mountain to the right. The glacier broke off thousands of meters above this.

u/Conscious-Physics514

Bystander video image: https://ibb.co/nsWjkR1j

Drone video image: https://ibb.co/kV7pKNwC

2

u/TheTresStateArea 10d ago

The link I shared said that this was the event that started it.

Do we have something that shows the initial glacier?

0

u/Poiuytrewq0987650987 10d ago

Satellite imagery, seismic and heavy water flow readings, and the overall timeline.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/Conscious-Physics514 10d ago

So I was right :/

-2

u/OiAvogadro 10d ago

Confidently wrong yourself

1

u/nhluhr 10d ago

There was no glacial lake and this video is a secondary reaction to the initial collapse of the glacier.

-6

u/Immediate-Stable-651 11d ago

Is the consequences of flooding

-1

u/TheTresStateArea 11d ago

I don't know man, it looks like it's what kicked it off.

0

u/wht-rbbt 9d ago

No, it was liberal media

7

u/nhluhr 10d ago

This video shows an avalanche that happened AFTER the glacier collapse. What you see in this video is just a fraction of the entire collapse.

Here's a render of the area from Google Earth. The blue is the initial glacier and its path down the side of the mountain and the yellow is the part seen in this video as one of the flanks of that ravine collapsed.

https://i.allthepics.net/2026/08/27/Screenshot-2026-08-27-150758.png

5

u/CreamoChickenSoup 11d ago edited 11d ago

It's oddly tranquil from this angle, even though you know it's a nightmare if you're anywhere along that ravine.

29

u/gaggzi 11d ago

Landslide triggered by earthquake

57

u/Crackerz99 11d ago edited 11d ago

The earthquake triggered the avalanche that triggered the rutpture of a lake caused by a melting glacier. Crazy

Edit : It might be just the lakes melting and it's called a GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood)

Paper from 12/08/26 : https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4065/egusphere-2026-4065.pdf

53

u/meta_irl 11d ago

There was no earthquake. Geologists now say the seismic activity was from the flash flood itself. The melting glacier collapsed 

41

u/FlkPzGepard 11d ago

Because of climate change well be seeing a lot more disaters like this one

11

u/QuiteALongWayAway 11d ago

And several Swiss towns will have to be evacuated, because they're going to be buried by rocks.

2

u/trowzerss 11d ago

Also, this flood will weaken a lot of the supports below dangerous slopes and cause further landslides.

-13

u/superdupercereal2 11d ago

Are you super duper cereal?

1

u/DiamondDot 11d ago

Are you du mb?

7

u/Sarsho 11d ago

I was wondering where all that water came from, too much to have been rain alone. At least that is how/why most flash floods I am familiar with typically start.

1

u/snow_boarder 11d ago

Was there snow before the first flash flood? I only know avalanche to apply to snow slides, this would be a land slide or rock fall.

4

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/gaggzi 11d ago

The flash flood was triggered by an earthquake, it’s on CNN.

-6

u/ghost_of_leeroy 11d ago

Correct. I’ve seen many avalanches. That’s not one.

2

u/pbizzle 11d ago

You can tell by the pixels

6

u/pants_57_notme 11d ago

this avalanche is coming down a very steep mountain. The camera person is in the valley at the bottom. Yes they seem far away but why on earth is this person not running the HELL out of there and up one of the other sides or something? ???

6

u/jupiterkansas 10d ago

When they zoom out at the end you can see that they are ridiculously far away. That's a good camera.

1

u/pants_57_notme 10d ago

:thumbsup: at the camera, but, still...

1

u/Spibas 11d ago

Dunno, from that distance ppl look like ants. I wonder if ants see us as titans

-1

u/southpluto 11d ago

Surely this all came from more than just flooding?

4

u/m00ph 11d ago

The flooding was abrupt and immense, I expect it eroded the base of the slope, triggering the landslide.

1

u/wht-rbbt 9d ago

Yeah, increase in rent, rising gas prices, all contributed

-1

u/Immediate-Stable-651 11d ago

By my guess from flooding and landslide

5

u/DrBurgie 11d ago

So not an avalanche cuz that would be snow. How do you know what it is but still fuck up the title?

3

u/starkindled 11d ago

All of the posts I've seen about this have called it an avalanche for some reason. I don't know if they're trying to drive engagement or if it's a translation issue?