Global warming has melted one of Mount Everest's most-visited glaciers into a vast and growing lake which now poses a threat to villagers and trekking tourists, scientists have warned.
A study of glacial melting in the high Himalaya found that the Imja glacier has melted from solid ice in the mid-1950s to a one and a half mile long lake today.
Scientists from Nepal's International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said the lake is growing by just under 50 metres per year and is in danger of bursting its banks – a 31 metre-high dam of rocks and stones – and flooding nearby villages and trekking routes.
They predicted that more than 7,500 people would be affected by the floods, including tourists hiking along the popular Everest Base Camp route.
The study compared photographs taken from the 1956 Swiss Everest expedition, which showed no evidence of a lake on the glacier, to later pictures and revealed the creation of a large lake.
"Photographs taken in the 1950s demonstrate that, except for several small melt ponds, no lake existed at that time. By 1984 a lake of approximately 0.4 square kilometres had formed," the report said.
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