Why Nepal’s Mountains Are Literally Falling Apart

On August 26, 2026, seismometers in northern Nepal recorded what looked like a magnitude 5.2 earthquake. It wasn't one. A huge slab of rock and glacier had broken off Langtang Lirung, and the flood that followed became one of the deadliest mountain disasters in Nepal's history. This video explains what holds the Himalayas together: ice and permafrost locked deep inside cracked rock. It covers why the freezing line is creeping up the mountains, how the 2015 earthquake had already weakened the slope, why not every flood in Nepal is a climate flood, who pays for the damage, and what actually keeps people safe. 0:00 The "earthquake" that wasn't 1:16 The day the mountain fell 2:20 The glue inside the mountain 3:52 Not the first time 5:28 The crack that was already there 6:30 One more twist 7:00 Who pays for it? 7:50 What can be done? 8:54 So why are the Himalayas falling apart? Support flood relief in Nepal: https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/nep... Subscribe to Curio for more stories about how our world really works. Sources: World Weather Attribution analysis of the Langtang Lirung collapse (via Down To Earth and Al Jazeera, Sept 2026); Wikipedia, "2026 Nepal–Tibet floods", "2026 Budhi Gandaki flood", "2024 Thame flood", "2025 Nepal floods", "Langtang, Rasuwa"; Mongabay India on Nepal's Loss and Damage Fund request (Sept 2026); ICIMOD 2023 Hindu Kush Himalaya glacier report (via The Daily Star); Kathmandu Post on the 2016 Imja Lake lowering; Shugar et al., Science (2021), on the Chamoli rock and ice avalanche. #Nepal #Himalayas #ClimateChange #Glaciers #Permafrost #Langtang #NepalFloods #Science #Curio #Documentary