Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
Nuri rocket successfully completes KAIST’s next-gen satellite mission
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)...
President Lai reviews progress on first indigenous satellite constellation
President Lai Ching-te said developing space technology is a...
Japan’s iQPS lines up eight SAR launches
ST. LOUIS — Japan’s Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of...
UAE Astronauts Promote AI and Collaboration in Space at GITEX Europe
The Arab world’s first astronaut, Hazzaa Al Mansouri, and...
New species of space-adapted bacteria discovered on China’s Tiangong space station
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown strain of microbe...
Isro’s 101st mission fails as PSLV-C61 suffers third-stage anomaly
India’s latest Earth observation satellite mission faced a setback...
Iraq’s First Fully Solar-Powered Village in Kulak Is Now Operational
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – May 20, 2025 — The...
Australia’s Gilmour Space Technologies ready to launch maiden Eris Test flight the nation’s first orbital launch in over 50 years
Gilmour Space Technologies is the leading launch services company...
Korea’s space agency seeks revision of plan to modify next-gen rockets into reusable system
South Korea's aerospace agency said on Thursday that it...
UAE Space Agency Signs Agreement With Technology Innovation Institute to Execute the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt’s Lander Project
In the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin...

The Journal of Glaciology recently published the first account from scientists at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITPCAS) concerning a glacier that collapsed on July 17, 2016, killing nine local yak herders. Eyewitnesses reported the episode lasted only four to five minutes, but more than 70 million cubic meters of ice tumbled down a mountain valley, spreading across 6 kilometers of the lowland below.

ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellite recorded “before and after” 10-meter-resolution images of the Aru Glacier collapse on July 17, 2016. (Credit: ESA/Sentinel-2)

ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellite recorded “before and after” 10-meter-resolution images of the Aru Glacier collapse on July 17, 2016. (Credit: ESA/Sentinel-2)

On Sept. 21, 2016, a neighboring glacier to the southeast collapsed. Although there were no deaths, the volume of ice released was even larger than in the first collapse.ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellite recorded “before and after” 10-meter-resolution images of the Aru Glacier collapse on July 17, 2016. (Credit: ESA/Sentinel-2)

“Unusually heavy snowfalls in the months before the collapses must have played a role,” noted Lide Tian of ITPCAS, lead author of the scientific paper. “Large amounts of resulting meltwater may have found their way to the glacier bed or to some surface of structural weakness within the ice. There the meltwater would have reduced frictional drag and triggered the collapses.”