--- title: Climate Change: Images Show Avalanche Devastation in Tibet description: Climate change may be to blame for a 2,500-acre ice avalanche this summer that ranks as one of the largest ever recorded, scientists say canonical: https://time.com/4482383/ice-avalanche-tibet/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-07T18:35:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:14:13.670Z article:section: Science og:title: See How This Giant Ice Avalanche Transformed a Valley og:description: Climate change may be to blame for a 2,500-acre ice avalanche this summer in Tibet og:url: https://time.com/4482383/ice-avalanche-tibet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ed7ddf3070612a3/6988a519656a3f6bc4bcd00e/ice-avalance.gif?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ice-avalance og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See How This Giant Ice Avalanche Transformed a Valley twitter:description: Climate change may be to blame for a 2,500-acre ice avalanche this summer in Tibet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ed7ddf3070612a3/6988a519656a3f6bc4bcd00e/ice-avalance.gif?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See How This Giant Ice Avalanche Transformed a Valley by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/) and [Marisa Gertz](https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/) Sep 7, 2016 6:35 PM UTC  A multispectral imager on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured an image of the debris field on July 21, 2016\. The Operational Land Imager, a similar instrument on Landsat 8, acquired an image on June 24, 2016, that shows the same area before the avalanche. A multispectral imager on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured an image of the debris field on July 21, 2016\. The Operational Land Imager, a similar instrument on Landsat 8, acquired an image on June 24, 2016, that shows the same area before the avalanche.Joshua Stevens—NASA Earth Observatory; Gif by Marisa Gertz for TIME by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/) and [Marisa Gertz](https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/) Sep 7, 2016 6:35 PM UTC Climate change may be to blame for a 2,500-acre ice avalanche this summer that ranks as one of the largest ever recorded, scientists [say](http://www.nature.com/news/giant-deadly-ice-slide-baffles-researchers-1.20471). The [avalanche](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-07/18/content%5F26128513.htm) killed nine people in Tibet and decimated the village of Dungru’s livestock as 3,500 cubic feet of ice and rocks crashed into a valley. The only avalanche of comparable scale in recorded history occurred in the Caucasus Mountains in 2002, according to a _Nature_ [report](http://www.nature.com/news/giant-deadly-ice-slide-baffles-researchers-1.20471). That incident left 140 people dead. The exact cause of this year’s massive avalanche remains uncertain. Indeed, scientists say the glacier collapse of this magnitude is highly unusual given that the area where the collapse began is flat. But scientists believe that warm temperatures or precipitation may have loosened the ice and caused the sheet to deteriorate. Both [warm temperatures](http://time.com/4453038/heat-wave-july-temperature/) and rainfall have been linked to man-made global warming. Before and after [images](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=88677&src=eorss-iotd) taken by a European Space Agency satellite illustrate the scale of the damage. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4482383/ice-avalanche-tibet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4482383/ice-avalanche-tibet/"},"headline":"See How This Giant Ice Avalanche Transformed a Valley","datePublished":"2016-09-07T18:35:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:14:13.670Z","description":"Before and after images taken by a satellite illustrate the scale of the damage","url":"https://time.com/4482383/ice-avalanche-tibet/","keywords":["Environment","climate change","NASA","Tibet","avalanche"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ed7ddf3070612a3/6988a519656a3f6bc4bcd00e/ice-avalance.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Marisa Gertz","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/marisa-gertz/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ed7ddf3070612a3/6988a519656a3f6bc4bcd00e/ice-avalance.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ice-avalance","caption":"A multispectral imager on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite captured an image of the debris field on July 21, 2016. 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