Alaska's bursting ice dam highlights threat of glacial floods worldwide

The grey, two-storey home with white trim toppled and slid, crashing into the river below as rushing waters carried off a bobbing chunk of its roof. Next door, a condo building teetered on the edge of the bank, its foundation already having fallen away as erosion undercut it.

The destruction came at the weekend as a glacial dam burst in Alaska’s capital, swelling the levels of the Mendenhall River to an unprecedented degree.

The bursting of such snow-and-ice dams is a phenomenon called a jokuhlaup, and while it’s relatively little known in the United States, researchers say such glacial floods could threaten about 15 million people around the world.

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