One week after the tragedy, a catastrophic avalanche followed by flooding destroyed cities and hydroelectric plants on the Nepal-Tibet border, territory controlled by China. The disaster left at least 1,066 dead — 1,050 in Nepal and 16 in Tibet — and 4,562 missing, according to data from August 26.
The calculation reported in Science magazine by scientist Adhikari Basanta Raj, director of the Disaster Studies Center at Tribhuvan University in Nepal, revealed that the avalanche released energy greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb, equivalent to about 15,000 tons of dynamite.
UN rescue teams have still not been able to access areas in northern Nepal almost a week after the floods, hindering search and rescue operations.
Scientists point out that one of the mysteries of the tragedy is the origin of so much water, since the glaciers and rivers in the region would not be enough to explain the magnitude of the flooding that followed the avalanche.
