Mountains in motion: how climate change is rewriting hazards in Earth’s icy regions

As climate change enhances glacier loss and leads to permafrost degradation, already dynamic mountain landscapes are becoming even more so, leading to hazardous processes. Recent disasters in the Himalaya have shown how complicated and far-reaching these can be, thwarting efforts to mitigate their risks. In this talk, we will explore several recent hazard cascades and investigate their similarities and differences in an effort to understand whether early warning is possible. I can’t promise any answers, but I endeavour to provide a thought-provoking discussion.

Dr Dan Shugar is a global leader in the field of alpine geohazards - those catastrophic geologic events that occur in the world’s high mountains and are increasingly linked to climate change. He has worked on mountain hazards and disasters in the Himalaya, including the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, 2021 Chamoli, 2023 Sikkim, and 2026 Rasuwa landslides and floods, and in North America, including the 2025 Alaskan megatsunami. Dan also makes considerable effort to communicate science to general audiences through talks, media interviews, documentaries, and podcasts. Dan has a PhD in Earth Sciences from Simon Fraser University and is currently Associate Professor at the University of Calgary where he leads the Water, Sediment, Hazards, and Earth-surface Dynamics (waterSHED) Lab and is Director of the Environmental Science Program.