Clouds over the Tibetan Plateau and the Andes are growing colder and higher than other clouds in response to climate change. That could affect local hydrology and radiation.
Tibetan Plateau
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Southeast Tibet Grew in Pulses, Not All at Once
Mineral cooling ages reveal three pulses when uplift and erosion exposed deeper rocks, showing that Southeast Tibet grew outward, step by step, over roughly 80 million years.
Posted inNews
Weak Faults Play a Strong Role in the Tibetan Plateau’s Deformation
Ten years’ worth of data reveal that two theories about how the Tibetan Plateau deforms are both probably right.
Posted inNews
Vegetation Moves Upslope Across the Himalayas
The vegetation line in places like Nepal and Bhutan is shifting upward by meters per year, with implications for how water moves through the planet’s “Third Pole.”
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Constructive Debate on the Rise of the Tibetan Plateau
A constructive debate on Himalayan tectonics shows how respectful scientific dialogue helps test competing ideas about how Earth’s highest plateau formed.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The unusual 1 June 2025 Dingqing landslide on the Tibetan Plateau
A new paper (Yunjian et al. 2026) in the journal Landslides discusses a 2 million cubic metre landslide that was triggered by freeze-thaw processes. On 1 June 2025, the Dingqing landslide occurred on the Tibetan Plateau. The landslide struck a temporary encampment being used by collectors of medicinal fungus, killing ten people. This landslide has […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 8 July 2025 catastrophic flood at Rasuwagadhi in Nepal
Yesterday, catastrophic flood swept down the Bhote Kosi river through Tibet and Nepal. At least 28 people have been killed. There is speculation that this might have been a GLOF. On 8 July 2025, a catastrophic mudslide / flood suddenly struck the Rasuwagadhi border crossing point between Tibet and Nepal, causing extensive damage. The Himalayan […]
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
The 1 June 2025 landslide at Muta township in Tibet
A 200,000 cubic metre rockslide in a remote area of Tibet on Sunday has left ten people dead or missing. On 1 June 2025 a large rockslide occurred in Muta township in Chamdo (Qamdo) metropolitan area in Tibet. Note that Chinese media sources call this area Xizang Autonomous Region, but it is what most of […]
Posted inOpinions
Preocupaciones sobre el litio, el agua y el clima en los dos desiertos más altos de la Tierra
La extracción de salmuera para satisfacer la demanda de recursos en medio de la transición a energías renovables está afectando los recursos hídricos en Sudamérica y China. Los hidrólogos pueden ayudar a comprender cómo y a sumarse a la búsqueda de soluciones.
Posted inThe Landslide Blog
Geological complexity as a way to understand the distribution of landslides
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides. Over the course of my career, I have read many papers (and indeed, written a few) that have tried to explain the distribution of landslides based upon combinations of factors that we […]