Glacier collapses in China

5 Dariya News

Beijing 16-May-2015

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, the regional government said on Saturday.No casualties have been reported in the Kongur Tiube glacier slide that occurred in the Akto county of Kizilsu Kirghiz prefecture, according to Xinhua news agency.

About 60 families were evacuated after the 20-km-long and one-km-wide glacier devoured their land.Researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have been sent to investigate the glacier slide.

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 the glacier slide," Li said.Kongur Tiube, which means in the local language "the mountain with a white cap", is the second highest peak of Western Kunlun with an elevation of 7,530 metres.