Climate Extra: Melting Glaciers
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  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    2 months ago

    Fun fact, glacial outburst floods are so traumatic that memory of them can be orally preserved for over 10,000 years.

    • Chaf@slrpnk.net
      3·
      2 months ago

      Fun indeed! How can you not give more information on something like that and just leave us hanging?

      I found the Missoula floods that fit your description. Seems like we’re in for fun times ahead. Then again, it’s unlikely that the glacial lakes reform in the current climate, so maybe we just get to witness one devastating flood per glacier…

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
      3·
      2 months ago

      I was in Colombia in the mid-nineties and was many times told the story about the eruption of the Nevado de Ruiz and the subsequent lahar, which destroyed the town of Armero. 23,000 people disappeared from life in a few minutes..

      At 11:30 p.m., the first lahar hit, followed shortly by the others.[29] One of the lahars virtually erased Armero; three-quarters of the town’s 28,700 inhabitants were killed.[26] Proceeding in three major waves, this lahar was 30 m (100 ft) deep, moved at 12 m/s (39 ft/s; 27 mph), and lasted ten to twenty minutes. Traveling at about 6 m/s (20 ft/s; 13 mph), the second lahar lasted thirty minutes and was followed by smaller pulses.[30] A third major pulse brought the lahar’s duration to roughly two hours. By that point, 85 percent of Armero was enveloped in mud. Survivors described people holding on to debris from their homes in attempts to stay above the mud. Buildings collapsed, crushing people and raining down debris.[30]

      The front of the lahar contained boulders and cobbles that would have crushed anyone in their path, while the slower parts were dotted by fine, sharp stones which caused lacerations. Mud moved into open wounds and other open body parts — the eyes, ears, and mouth — and placed pressure capable of inducing traumatic asphyxia in one or two minutes upon people buried in it. Martí and Ernst state in their work Volcanoes and the Environment that they believe that many who survived the lahars succumbed to their injuries as they were trapped, or contracted hypothermia, though the latter is unlikely, given that survivors described the water as warm.[30]

      Another lahar, which descended through the valley of the Chinchiná River, killed about 1,800 people and destroyed 400 homes in Chinchiná.[6] In total, more than 23,000 people were killed, approximately 5,000 were injured, and 5,000 homes[26] throughout thirteen villages[28] were destroyed.