Glacier threatens valley
NZPA-AFP Moscow Emergency evacuation sites are being set up in the Central Asian republic of Tadhikistan where the Medveshy glacier has speeded up, threatening catastrophe for the heavily populated valley below, the Soviet news agency, Tass, said on Saturday.
A team of experts was sent to the foot of the glacier to try to find out why it has inexplicably increased its usual rate of descent tenfold, to 20m a day. If this rate continues, catastrophe could strike in two weeks. The region has been hit by a similar scenario twice before, in 1963 and
1973, when the glacier blocked the Adukagor River valley, creating an enormous reservoir of water that, in turn, dumped 30 million cubic metres on the heavily populated area below, according to Tass. Dikes are also being built to try to head off floodwaters.
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Press, 12 June 1989, Page 11
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141Glacier threatens valley Press, 12 June 1989, Page 11
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