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There have been reports of a dam bursting in northern India in the state of Uttarakhand on Sunday as a result of glacier collapse.
Prof Stephan Harrison, Professor of Climate and Environmental Change at the University of Exeter, said:
“The recent tragic disaster in Uttarakhand has been reported as being triggered by a glacier collapse. However, the evidence so far available suggests that it was a large landslide that created the devastating flood. Several people on social media have also argued that climate change is responsible, but attribution to a climate driver is likely to be extremely difficult. What such events do show is that development of infrastructure such as hydroelectric power in high glaciated valleys requires a good understanding of the likely climate and geological risks in such rapidly evolving systems.”
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