Recent giant detachment of a glacier in Tibet provoked by its frozen tongue

Recent giant detachment of a glacier in Tibet provoked by its frozen tongue | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Recent giant detachment of a glacier in Tibet provoked by its frozen tongue Andreas Kääb, Juditha Aga, Désirée Treichler, Luc Girod, Wei-An Chao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5791129/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 26 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Communications Earth & Environment → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Sudden detachments of entire glacier tongues, leading to giant ice avalanches, are rare but potentially devastating events that remain poorly understood. We report on a previously unnoticed event that occurred in Tibet on November 1, 2022, with an ice volume of ~40 million cubic meters, ranking it among the largest recorded ice avalanches to date. Utilizing a broad array of satellite data types and analyses, and seismic signals, we reconstruct the exponential acceleration of the source glacier leading to its failure, the timing of the event, and the significant landscape changes caused by the avalanche. Our analyses provide important new insights into the mechanisms behind large-volume detachments of low-angle glaciers. In particular, the frozen terminus has very likely played a key role in the evolution of the glacier failure by acting as a dam to the ice mass pushing from above and its potential water content. The dense coverage by high-quality satellite data reveals for the for first time for low-angle glacier detachments details of an exponential increase in glacier speeds, up to 46 m/day in the weeks and days prior to failure. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Cryospheric science Earth and environmental sciences/Natural hazards Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files collapsecommsenvsupplv3.pdf Supplementary information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 26 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Communications Earth & Environment → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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