Glacier collapses in China's Xinjiang

A huge body of glacier has collapsed in China's Xinjiang, burying more than 100 cattle, crushing dozens of houses and damaging 1,000 hectares of grassland, local government said on Saturday.

No casualties has been reported in the Kongur Tiube glacier slide that occurred in the Akto County of the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture.

About 60 families were evacuated after the 20-kilometer-long and one- kilometer-wide glacier devoured their land.

Researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have been sent to investigate the glacier move.

The researchers would collect information via remote sensing technologies, said Li Zhongqin, head of CAS Tianshan Mountains Glacier Observation Station.

"Climate change is the main reason leading to glacier moves," Li said.

Kongur Tiube, which means in the local language "the mountain with a white cap", is the second highest peak of the Western Kunlun with elevation of 7,530 meters. 
  Xinhua - china.org.cn
17/5/15
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