Roughly 160 people are dead and hundreds more — including dozens of international tourists — are missing after flash floods struck a mountainous region along the border of Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday. The floods were so sudden and severe that people were seen fleeing on social media as a wall of water swept through the area, destroying buildings and vehicles. The region, known for its rugged terrain and high altitude, is particularly vulnerable to such events due to its glacial landscape. Initial analysis of satellite images and reports from the Nepalese government suggest that the flooding was likely caused by a landslide triggered when a large piece of a glacier fell hundreds of feet. This kind of event is becoming more common as climate change accelerates the melting of glaciers worldwide. A recent study warns that if global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius, up to 40 percent of the world’s glacial ice could disappear. This melting weakens glaciers, making them more prone to sudden collapses that can lead to catastrophic flooding. Glaciers in the region are retreating rapidly. Joseph Shea, an associate professor of geography at the University of Northern British Columbia, explained that the glaciers in this area are "definitely in retreat," with noticeable thinning and shrinking. Since 2000, glaciers around the world have lost 5 percent of their ice, with some regions, like Nepal, experiencing even more dramatic losses. Research shows that Nepal’s glaciers have lost nearly a quarter of their area between 1970 and 2010, and more than 160 smaller glaciers in the country have completely disappeared. The consequences of melting glaciers can be far-reaching. As glaciers shrink, they can no longer hold back large amounts of sediment, increasing the risk of landslides. These landslides can trigger glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), where a sudden release of water from a lake dammed by glacial ice causes widespread destruction. Two such events occurred in Nepal last year, and millions of people globally live in areas at risk from similar disasters. Wednesday’s flood was likely caused by a massive glacial collapse, according to Daniel Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary. Satellite images suggested a 2,000-foot-wide piece of ice fell nearly 4,000 feet, generating a powerful surge of water. The collapse was so intense that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event. While Shugar said it was still too early to confirm the exact cause, he noted that warm temperatures may have caused snow on the glacier to melt earlier in the week, contributing to the instability. In other parts of the world, similar glacial collapses have had devastating consequences. A Swiss glacier collapsed last year, burying a town, while a smaller glacier collapse in Italy in 2022 killed 11 mountaineers. Both events were linked to rising temperatures. Shea emphasized that in a warming world, multiple factors — such as increased melting, thawing permafrost, and the movement of ice — can combine to destabilize glaciers, making such disasters more frequent and severe.