Breaking News: a catastrophic glacier collapse and mudflow in Salkantay, Peru

[Judi Lynn]

27 FEBRUARY 2020

Posted by Dave Petley

On 24 February an enormous, catastrophic debris flow tore down the Salkantay River in Santa Teresa, Peru. This event has killed at least four people, with a further 13 reported to be missing. Given the magnitude of the flow, this number is probably uncertain.

The mudflow was captured in an extraordinary video posted to Youtube:-

A mudflow on this scale usually requires an extraordinary cause. Diario Correo in Peru has an explanation – this event was caused by glacial collapse on Salkantay mountain. This hypothesis is proposed by Oscar Vilca Gómez, who the article describes as a specialist in Hydrology and Glaciology. He visited the site site of the detachment as part of a research team from the National Institute for Glacier Research of the Ministry of Environment. They propose that an ice / rock avalanche detached from the mountain, crossed the Salkantay Cocha lake, and generated the huge debris flow.

The article includes the following image of the site:-



The site of the rock / ice avalanche at Salkantay in Peru. Image by Benito Moncado via Diario Correo Peru.

In first inspection this appears to be a wedge failure in the rock mass that has fragmented to generate the rock / ice avalanche. The photographer appears to be standing on the landslide deposit.

More:
https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2020/02/27/salkantay-1/

[safeinOhio]

1. Hard to watch

very bad scene

[democrank]

2. Terrifying

Such an enormous amount of force

[pansypoo53219]

3. this must be a fraction of what the rush of water must have been to create the WI dells in ONE DAY.