Earth is home to 14 “eight-thousanders,” summits that top off at more than 8,000 meters, or 26,247 feet, above sea level. All of these grand mountains towerBut our planet is dynamic—could there have been additional peaks like these, since lost? “We wanted to know whether, 830 years ago, the Earth and the Himalayas had one more,” says
Lavé says his team first spotted the fingerprints of this medieval landslide not in the Himalayas, but far to the south, near the India-Nepal border, in the flat plains around the Narayani River. For instance, Lavé and colleagues found medieval sediments with a carbonate content five times higher than average. This mineral fingerprint indicated thathad disrupted the Narayani’s flow. “A giant landslide occurring…seemed to me the most obvious avenue to explore,” Lavé says.They began plying uphill to find out more. The Narayani flows through the city of Pokhara, nestled in a valley less than 3,000 feet above sea level.
The authors needed more samples. Collecting fragments from the plains is one thing. It was another to gather wood and rock from the Sabche cirque—they ventured up into the massif by helicopter. From these parts, they began to build the hazy image of a mountain that existed, long ago, until one catastrophic day around 1190 CE.
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