Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-67-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-67-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
07 Jan 2026
Research article |
| 07 Jan 2026
| 07 Jan 2026
Quantifying degradation of the Imja Lake moraine dam with fused InSAR and SAR feature tracking time series
University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1400 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Scott T. Henderson
University of Washington Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 1707 NE Grant Lane, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
University of Washington eScience Institute, 1410 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
David E. Shean
University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1400 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
University of Washington Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 1707 NE Grant Lane, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
University of Washington eScience Institute, 1410 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
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Short summary
Glacial lakes are often dammed by moraines, which can fail, causing floods. Traditional methods of measuring moraine dam structure are not feasible for thousands of lakes. We instead developed a method to measure moraine dam movement with satellite radar data and applied this approach to the Imja Lake moraine dam in Nepal. We found that the moraine dam moved ~90 cm from 2017–2024, providing information about its internal structure. These data can help guide limited hazard remediation resources.
Glacial lakes are often dammed by moraines, which can fail, causing floods. Traditional methods...
