Special Issue on High-Mountain Glacial and Ice-Margin Lake Cascading Hazards

Published 16 October, 2026

On 26 August 2026, a cascading disaster impacted the Gyirong Port area along the China–Nepal border. Triggered by a high-altitude ice–rock avalanche on the Nepalese side of the Himalayas, the event evolved into a high-speed debris flow that traveled over 20 km along confined alpine valleys, causing severe damage to cross-border infrastructure and subsequent flash flooding along the Trishuli River in Nepal.

While not a classical glacial lake outburst flood, the catastrophic event underscores the growing threat of cryosphere-related hazard chains in high-mountain Asia, likely driven by global climate changes. Rapid glacier change, widespread glacial deposits, steep topography, and active tectonics are increasingly driving complex chains of ice avalanches, landslides, debris flows, flash floods, earthquakes and other cascading geohazards. Understanding these coupled cryosphere–geosphere processes is essential for improving risk assessment, early warning, and resilience in transboundary mountain regions.

Earthquake Research Advances invites submissions for a special issue on “High-Mountain Glacial and Ice-Margin Lake Cascading Hazards”. Topics of interests include, but are not limited to:

  • Disaster-chain research: ice avalanche → lake impact → dam breach → outburst flood → debris flow / flash flood; process observations, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling.
  • Cascade triggering mechanisms: interactions among glacier dynamics, permafrost degradation, slope instability, tectonics, ground motion, and seismic shaking in initiating ice collapse or lake outburst.
  • Monitoring and early warning: space–air–ground–subsurface observing systems; remote sensing, UAVs, GNSS, InSAR, seismic sensor networks, real-time warning, and dam/lake stability surveillance.
  • Artificial intelligence and big data: multi-source data fusion, machine learning for hazard mapping, intelligent forecasting, surrogate modeling, and scenario simulation of cascade processes.
  • Hazard assessment and risk governance: exposure/vulnerability analysis, cascade risk zoning, emergency management, resilient infrastructure, evacuation, and engineering mitigation in extreme high-altitude environments.

Important deadlines:

  • Full manuscript deadline: 31 December 2026
  • Review completion target deadline: 28 February 2027 (accelerated handling for this special issue)
  • Expected publication: Continuous publication throughout 2027 as a special collection

Submission Instructions:

  • Manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
  • Data should be reliable and methods reproducible where applicable.
  • Article types: research articles, reviews, rapid communications, technical methods, and data papers.
  • Follow the Earthquake Research Advances Guide for Authors: https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/earthquake-research-advances/guide-for-authors/.
  • English is preferred; manuscripts should be written in clear scientific English.
  • During submission, select the special issue / special section and mention “High-Mountain Glacial and Ice-Margin Lake Cascading Hazards”in the cover letter and submission remarks.
  • All submissions undergo the journal's standard peer-review process.

Guest editors:

We welcome inquiries from prospective authors and reviewers. For questions about this special issue, please contact the Guest Editors:      

 

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