Chinese Academy of Sciences An international team led by researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Geneva has found that flash floods may triple across the Earth’s “Third Pole” in response to ongoing climate change. Their findings were published in Nature Climate Change on May 6. The Hindu Kush-Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain ranges are widely known as the “Third Pole” of the Earth. It contains the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions. Due to global warming, the widespread and accelerated melting of glaciers over most of the Third Pole is causing rapid expansion and formation of glacial lakes. When water is suddenly released from these lakes through dam failure or overtopping, glacial lake outburst floods occur, posing a severe threat to downstream communities.