World’s highest river is shapeshifting as climate change melts Himalayas

The world's highest river, the Yarlung Zangbo, flowing through Tibet, China, nearly 4,000-meter above sea-level, has become increasingly unstable due to climate change.

Satellite images of the braided river reveal drastic changes in its patterns, almost shapeshifting over the past few decades.

Experts warn that instability in the 1,250-mile-long waterway can worsen due to exacerbating effects of climate change.

A 37-year time-lapse of satellite images of China’s fifth-longest and the world’s highest river shows that the braided Yarlung Zangbo has shifted its shape countless times.

Zoltan Sylvester, a geologist at the University of Texas at Austin, said the continuous shape shifting makes it impossible for all vegetation to grow on the sandbars that sporadically appear between the river’s braids.

Zoltan told Earth Observatory that the heavy sediment deposits from the steep slopes of the adjacent Himalayas gets washed into the river and help carve new channels into the ground, resulting in braiding.

For context, the river originates from Angsi Glacier. Like all other ice masses, Angsi has also lost a significant amount of water in recent decades due to human-induced global warming.

Experts warn that meltwater is depositing more sediments to the river increasing erosion, ultimately posing the risk to ecosystems, infrastructure and landscape stability.