{"id":7165,"date":"2013-10-29T09:33:03","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T09:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=7165"},"modified":"2013-10-29T20:42:17","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T20:42:17","slug":"kedarnath-photo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2013\/10\/29\/kedarnath-photo-2\/","title":{"rendered":"More photographs of the aftermath of the Kedarnath debris flow disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I posted one of the images kindly provided by Vaibhav\u00a0Kaul\u00a0of the aftermath of the Kedarnath disaster<\/a>.\u00a0 These were taken\u00a0on a recent visit by Vaibhav to the area, on foot of course – a truly epic journey.\u00a0 He has kindly allowed me to post more of them here.\u00a0 For reference, it is worth looking at the earlier post in which I reconstructed the events of that day in June<\/a>, and the one in which I blended eye-witness reports with an overall narrative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Chorabari Glacier source of the second debris flow<\/h5>\n

The source of the second, more damaging debris flow, was a breach in the glacial moraine that formed a dam to create a temporary lake, known as\u00a0Chorabari Tal (Gandhi
\nSarovar), on the flank of the glacier.\u00a0 This image shows one of the two tongues of the glacier.\u00a0\u00a0 The valley on the left side of the image on the flank of the glacier is that of Chorabari\u00a0Tal (Gandhi Sarovar).\u00a0 The breach is clearly visible, as is the path that the water followed:<\/p>\n

\"Chorabari<\/a>

Courtesy and copyright of Vaibhav\u00a0Kaul<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

The track of the second debris flow<\/h5>\n

Viewed from below the town, the track of the main debris flow down the slope above the town is very clear.\u00a0 Most of the water and debris flowed down the left side of the image, a smaller component over-spilled the ridge to flow down towards the right side.\u00a0 The flows recombined above the town:<\/p>\n

\"Chorabari<\/a>

Courtesy and copyright of Vaibhav\u00a0Kaul<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

The impact on the town<\/h5>\n

The debris flow then struck the town with devastating consequences.\u00a0 At the upslope\u00a0end of the town was located\u00a0the temple, which escaped with comparatively minor damage.\u00a0 This is probably due to a combination of an extremely robust structure and, possibly, the protective effects of a boulder immediately upstream of the main building:<\/p>\n

\"Kedarnath<\/a>

Courtesy and copyright of Vaibhav\u00a0Kaul<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

Downstream the buildings were far less fortunate:<\/p>\n

\"Kedarnath<\/a>

Courtesy and copyright of Vaibhav\u00a0Kaul<\/p><\/div>\n

…<\/p>\n

Effects below Kedarnath<\/h5>\n

The debris flow then passed down through the valley below the town, where the effects of the debris flow were devastating.\u00a0 This is the channel upstream of the small village of Rambara – note the slope failures on the flanks of the channel triggered by undercutting by the main flow:<\/p>\n

\"Upstream<\/a>

Courtesy and copyright of Vaibhav\u00a0Kaul<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

Rambara destroyed<\/h5>\n

The most shocking impact of this disaster is the effect on Rambara.\u00a0 This is Rambara before the debris flow (source<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"Rambara<\/a>

Source: http:\/\/www.sacredyatra.com\/kedarnath-pictures.html<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

This is the site of the village now:<\/p>\n

\"Rambara<\/a>

Courtesy and copyright of Vaibhav Kaul<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vaibhav Kaul recently visited Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, India, the site of the debris flow disaster earlier this year. These are some of his photographs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":7168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[469,5,749,146,72,730],"class_list":["post-7165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-images","tag-featured","tag-india","tag-kedaranath","tag-s-asia","tag-south-asia","tag-uttarakhand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}