GLOF at Yazyupk between Hussaini and Ghulkin
PT Report
Ghulkin, April 21: A small scale glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) has taken place this morning at a place called Yazyupk, located between Ghulkin and Hussaini, in Gojal Tehsil of Hunza – Nagar district.
Wazir Aman, a shop owner operating his business near the glacier, told Pamir Times on phone that the flood had started at around 8 in the morning and volume of water discharged has gradually increased. “When I came here in the morning to open my shop I saw the flood starting and informed the Focus people about it”, he said. He also said that a a team of Focus has reached the spot and is analyzing the situation.
Authentic information about the volume of water discharge could not be obtained. However, measurements are being taken by a geologist working for Focus, Wazir Aman informed Pamir Times.
“The flood is bringing down boulders and has muddied the water of Hunza River”, he further said. “Three and half hours have passed since the flooding started and it has not stopped yet”, he said.
The flood water has not affected any of the settled areas so far as it is passing below a bridge on the KKH, Pamir Times has learnt.
Lake formed on the Hunza River is around 10 kilometers downstream of the GLOF site.
Earth Rampage
Geographical changes v been an integral source of evolution.we people have been unique at being d inhabitants of gigantic mountains lap.Nevertheless v must be prepared to face such plant rampage.GOD bless,ameen
Agree with farman. Geographical changes has played a vital role for evolution in the past, mighty civilizations have also not been able to stand against such cruel natural calamities.
Fortunately or unfortunately the Gojal valley is located at the heart of these geograghical change catalyizers. The pevailing sitution in Gojal is threatening to the inhabibtants of the area. We need to ask ourselves, are we prepared mentally and physically to cope with the very crises?
I think we have not prepared ourselves yet, we seriously need to equiped ourselves with latest technicalities, morally and governace at the poltical front, which I think has the key contribution.
God bless u all!
As a native of these mountains, we need to be physically and mentally prepared for such things. It is a question for all of us that When and why our ancestors had come over to these areas to settle, what were the hazards that led to their migration to these valleys and how many large scale disasters have your parents faced or have heard from their far fathers. We can relate them to the traces of such events accounted by the experts such as Kenneth Hewitt in their articles. It will really help us to rebuild and reconstruct these stories with their actual events.
For me it was an interesting discovery that it was the Gulmit Landslide (apposite the Gulmit suspension bridge) which caused the Salmanabad (Ghamesarat) river blockade to breach. Earlier, this story was wrongly attributed to some other event by Dr. Hewitt’s article corrected this belief.
We do not know how many lives and property were lost during the past major landslides and natural disasters as these area were not connected with the world. But one thing is for sure that they have lived in these valleys quite happily and faced these hazards bravely while many of us may have been thinking of relocating somewhere else.
We forget the fact that human are also part of the nature.
Actually the earth is getting crazy, if you see the occurrence of no of disaster through the world is increasing, like within the last 4 months of 2010, there was landslide in Hunza, EQ in Haiti, EQ Chilli, EQ China, EQ Afghanistan, Cyclone in India, volcanic activities in Iceland and now GLOF in Gojal….are we responsible for this or it signals something else????????????
lolz….GLOF in Gojal and you are comparing it to Haiti earth quake. be realistic these small floods occur every year in various water channels in almost every village in Hunza region.
Is this above the new lake?
@ JP
Yes.
PT must not distort the history of the location while reporting a NEWS. This is not an unnamed spot /point on earth. That is Sisoni yaz/ Yazyuopk. Dare to say the truth.
Lets be realistic, the historic name as far as I have heard since my birth was YAZYUPK because each glacier has its unique local lames like, Baalt e Bar, Burondo Bar, Zhuchaar, Zherav, Yazupk, Shispar, Gul e Butur and you can take any of them and those mighty ones in Shimshal have their own names, not specific to the villages.
Unfortunately, some international geographers have written some of these glaciers with the name of some villages, for instance, Zhrav was written as Ghulkin Glacier and similerly the Yazyupk as Sisooni or Hussaini Glacier, probably because of the tourism business some of our tour guides may have thought of marketing their villages attributing them with these gigantic land marks.
While these Glaciers are there for centuries while our villages were created and build very late. My request is to our youth to be positive and come forward with some constructive and informative things instead of distorting the facts and criticizing those who do not agree to your personal approach of things.
Pamir Times is a voluntary organization and is based upon our contributions. It is now our responsibility to work for the true cause of disseminating the right information and also correct where is needed.
I hope my brother Kokon will not mind.
This added glacier melt will only increase the rate that water flows into the new lake, which will increase the lake depth.