NEW DELHI: An earthquake of magnitude 5.0 struck Nepal at 9.38 pm on Tuesday, the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said, as the region continues to grapple with the aftermath of devastating flash floods that have killed more than 1,300 people in Nepal.The tremor was reported hours after a magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Tibet, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). The Tibet quake occurred at a depth of 35 km.The latest tremors come days after another earthquake of magnitude 5.0 struck Tibet on Thursday last week, according to data from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). That earthquake was recorded at a depth of 10 km.The earthquakes come as the Tibet-Nepal region continues to reel from devastating flash floods that struck on August 26.The floods were triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border, sending a massive surge of water and debris downstream through the Bhotekoshi River. The disaster devastated settlements across northern and central Nepal and damaged several hydropower projects.Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said the death toll from the floods had risen to 1,357 as of Tuesday, with rescue teams continuing searches for 5,326 people. A total of 13,583 people had been rescued.Security forces recovered hundreds of bodies from affected districts including Chitawan, Nawalparasi East and West, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Gorkha, Dhading and Tanahu. Authorities said 102 bodies had been handed over to families after identification and completion of legal formalities.At least 43 people were also killed on the Chinese side, while more than 500 remained missing in Tibet, according to Chinese media reports.The floods washed away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and damaged hydropower infrastructure. Rescue operations were also underway at hydropower projects where 121 people were believed to be trapped in underground tunnels.The disaster has also raised concerns over the fragile environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with Chinese climate experts pointing to rising temperatures, accelerated glacier melt, local geological and geomorphological conditions and broader climatic influences as possible contributing factors.Sun Xiaoguang, head of the Meteorological Observatory of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said: “According to our monitoring, we can see the short-time rain days, or the imbalance of the rain pattern and the rising of the temperature in Tibet.”He said the region could be affected by the climate change crisis and that extreme weather events in China could become more frequent.Chinese officials said Tibet has about 33,000 glaciers, including 187 classified as high-risk and requiring round-the-clock satellite monitoring to predict possible collapses, according to PTI.Kang Shichang, director and researcher at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said glaciers across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had shrunk by about 24% in area over the past six decades.In the southern part of the plateau, including the Himalayas, glacier coverage had fallen by about 40% over the same period, Kang told Chinese daily The Paper, attributing the retreat primarily to global warming.The scale of the disaster has also renewed scrutiny of hydropower projects in Tibet, including China’s planned mega dam on the Brahmaputra River.The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the source of around 10 transboundary rivers, including the Brahmaputra, making changes to its glaciers, rivers and extreme weather patterns significant for downstream regions.Chinese researchers have linked the growing risks in the region to glacier retreat and climate change as authorities continue rescue and recovery operations following the August 26 floods.
