Peru Flags 152 Glacial Lakes at High Risk of Bursting
Peru's glacier institute has ranked 528 lakes for overflow danger. It places 152 of them in the two highest bands of glacial lake risk. The post Peru Flags 152 Glacial Lakes at High Risk of Bursting appeared first on The Rio Times .
Peru has identified 152 glacial lakes as the highest risk of bursting, according to a national review conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Investigación en Glaciares y Ecosistemas de Montana (INAIGEM). These lakes are located in Andean valleys and pose a significant threat to surrounding towns and farmland. The review, which assessed 528 glacial lakes, accounts for approximately 6% of all glacial lakes in the country.
INAIGEM's ranking places the highest-risk lake, Upiscocha, in the Cordillera Vilcanota with a risk ratio of 0.99. This lake is situated between the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Central, with an estimated 111 dwellings in its vicinity. Other dangerous lakes include Palcacocha in the Cordillera Blanca with a risk ratio of 0.78 and Tullparaju in Áncash with a risk ratio of 0.75. Altogether, these 152 lakes expose over 15,000 families in Áncash alone.
The risk is not a prediction of a specific lake bursting, but rather a combination of factors such as slope angles around each lake, lake size, and the material holding the water back. Many of these Andean lakes are dammed by moraine, the loose debris left by retreating ice, which can be breached by a rock or ice fall into the lake. The resulting aluvión, or glacial mudflow, is known as a GLOF or glacial lake outburst flood.
Peru ranks third in the world for exposure to glacial lake outburst floods, with CENEPRED estimating that 7,951,322 people are at very high risk from flooding across 22 departments. The Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil (INDECI) estimates that 1,248,412 people could be affected by glacial lake outburst floods between October and March 2027.
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