This lake is currently halting any further rescue operations in the area, because the collapse of it threatens to unleash yet another very devastating flood.
As these natural glacial reservoirs have no usual natural outlet, when they go, that's thousands of years of stored water and energy released. Anything that catches it now has those forces to contend with, and freshly-created lakes tend to not hold up very well to being constantly filled while attempting to settle into a stable configuration.
That unfortunately means we have to give up on the people caught in the first flood, as the potential for a second one catching the rescue workers is too great.
Horrible incident. The best we can hope for from this is a greater understanding of the risks associated with living in such an area, and hopefully better geological warning systems will be created out of this.
EDIT: For perspective, the energy released in this event, capable of causing a 5.2 magnitude seismic event to register, would have been equivalent to roughly 30 of the nukes we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This lake is currently halting any further rescue operations in the area, because the collapse of it threatens to unleash yet another very devastating flood.
As these natural glacial reservoirs have no usual natural outlet, when they go, that's thousands of years of stored water and energy released. Anything that catches it now has those forces to contend with, and freshly-created lakes tend to not hold up very well to being constantly filled while attempting to settle into a stable configuration.
That unfortunately means we have to give up on the people caught in the first flood, as the potential for a second one catching the rescue workers is too great.
Horrible incident. The best we can hope for from this is a greater understanding of the risks associated with living in such an area, and hopefully better geological warning systems will be created out of this.
EDIT: For perspective, the energy released in this event, capable of causing a 5.2 magnitude seismic event to register, would have been equivalent to roughly 30 of the nukes we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.