The risk to El Chaltén in Argentina has been known for years but recent findings and the Nepal disaster have brought planning for the worst-case scenario into sharp focus
The images from Nepal stopped Daniela Schmidt in her tracks. A geologist at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, she watched the deadly flash floods on 26 August tear through everything in their path, people running for their lives as the water and debris swept over the landscape.
“I had never seen anything like it,” she says. “This was one of the most catastrophic events on a global scale related to these glacial floods.”
The aftermath of the Nepal floods in Nuwakot district, 26 August. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
