The earth is heating up, melting ice threatens millions of lives

Scientists have warned that as the planet warms and glaciers shrink into size, molten water accumulates and creates lakes, often as a result of ice action as a dam.

Since 1990, the volume, area, and number of these frozen lakes have increased by 50 percent on a global scale. When these lakes overflow, then there is the danger that they can break up barriers by releasing large volumes of water and causing catastrophic floods.

Some lakes are more dangerous than others, and they will likely result in what is known as floods from ice lakes. Special concerns for scientists present lakes in the Andes area and in the Himalayas, where glaciers are melting with the possibility of falling even the mountain's surfaces in these lakes.

The link between rising temperatures and floods from ice lakes is complicated. While the creation and growth of glacier lakes can be attributed to anthropogenic climate changes, those that can cause catastrophic floods are often non-climate factors, such as earthquakes, avalanches, or extreme rainfall.

One of the parameters making a potentially dangerous ice lake is the size of the population around it that can be exposed to floods, and the number could range from several hundred to hundreds of thousands. However, many factors are at stake, and it is almost impossible to estimate how many people can be endangered on a global scale. /Tch/