Articles | Volume 10, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-705-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-705-2022
Research article
 | 
14 Jul 2022
Research article |  | 14 Jul 2022

The imprint of erosion by glacial lake outburst floods in the topography of central Himalayan rivers

Maxwell P. Dahlquist and A. Joshua West

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Himalayan rivers are full of giant boulders that rarely move except during glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which therefore must be important drivers of erosion in the Himalayas. GLOFs are rare, so little is known about their long-term erosional impact. We found that rivers in Nepal have channel geometry that, compared with markers of upstream glaciation, confirm GLOFs as a major control on erosion. This previously unrecognized control should be accounted for in landscape evolution studies.