CHUNG KHUNDAM

 

Event description

 

The advance of the Chung Khumdan glacier - a tributary of the Shyok, had formed an ice dam. The 1929 outburst flood of Chung Khumdan glacier was monitored from near the glacier for over 1`500 km downstream. Gunn (1930) estimated the reservoir to have contained almost 1350 Mio m<sup>3</sup>. Some 300`000 m³ of ice were also carried by the flood and stranded on large blocks in the valley below the dam. At the peak of the steeply rising and falling flood, water discharges in excess of 22`650 m³/s were indicated, which is the largest discharge ever measured for the entire upper lndus at Attock.

 

Damage

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Data source

 

Mool, P. K., Bajracharya, S. R., Roohi, R., Ashraf, A. (2003): Astor Basin, Pakistan Himalaya. Inventory of Glaciers and Glacial Lakes and the Identification of Potential Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) Affected by Global Warming in the Mountains of Himalayan Region.

 

Remarks

 

The only information available for 1926, 1929, and 1932 Khumdan outbursts is that breaching began through subglacial tunnels, but then carried away the entire thickness of ice above (Khan 1994).