The death toll in Nepal has exceeded 500 people. Over 2,500 people are missing. The cause of the disaster has been traced to a mountain called Langtang Lirung.
The mountain is almost certainly Langtang Lirung (7,227 m), on the Nepal–Tibet/China frontier. The mountain has now been identified as the source area of the catastrophic August 26, 2026 glacier/rock collapse that sent a debris flood through Tibet and into Nepal.
An earlier disaster occurred in April–May 2015
There actually was a sequence of failures from Langtang Lirung in 2015, rather than just one event.
On 25 April 2015, the M7.8 Gorkha earthquake shook Nepal. High on Langtang Lirung, roughly 6,800–7,200 m up, multiple masses of snow and glacier ice broke loose. They picked up rock and soil as they descended and then plunged over a cliff into the Langtang Valley.
The resulting avalanche/debris avalanche essentially destroyed Langtang village. More than 200 people were killed, with some later estimates putting the total associated with the Langtang disaster at more than 350. The avalanche also produced an enormous pressure wave that flattened trees and damaged settlements beyond the area directly covered by debris.
What is particularly relevant is that the mountain continued to fail after the main earthquake. Satellite imagery shows another substantial mass movement around 8–10 May 2015, apparently originating from the summit ridge of Langtang Lirung at about 6,700 m. Other avalanches from the Langtang Lirung/Langtang II area also damaged Kyanjin and other settlements.
So there really was a continuing sequence of glacier/rock failures on the same mountain.
There was also a 2016 Tibet-to-Nepal glacial disaster. The initiating event occurred on the Tibetan side and the resulting debris flow crossed into Nepal.
On 5 July 2016, a glacial lake called Gongbatongsha in Tibet suddenly burst after debris entered the lake and caused it to overtop/breach. The resulting flood transformed into a huge debris and hyperconcentrated flow. It crossed the international border and travelled roughly 40 km into Nepal, severely damaging the Upper Bhote Koshi hydropower plant, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The economic loss was estimated at more than US$70 million.
That event is sometimes described as a GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood), but the physics were more complicated: a slope/debris failure entered the lake → the lake overtopped → the moraine breached → the flood entrained enormous quantities of rock and sediment → it evolved into a destructive debris flow in Nepal.
