A Facebook post with a video purportedly depicting melting ice and falling rocks collapsing into a lake on the China and Nepal border in August 2026 has been found to be PARTLY FALSE. The post, which has been shared widely, claims that the incident triggered a massive flood that swept away homes and people. However, a thorough investigation by PesaCheck has revealed that the video does not show the claimed incident.
According to CNN, catastrophic flooding did indeed strike the Nepal-China border on 26 August 2026, resulting in over 600 deaths in Nepal and leaving around 2,500 people missing on both sides of the border. The flooding had a devastating impact on communities and engulfed a border crossing, with authorities continuing search and rescue operations. However, this incident is not related to the video in question.
A Google reverse image search of a screenshot from the video revealed that it actually shows Grey Glacier's ice sheet breaking off into Grey Lake in Chile in November 2022. The video was published by Licet Studios on 10 November 2022 with the headline, "Incredible collapse triggered by Glacier Claving South America, Chile." This suggests that the video is over three years old and has no connection to the China-Nepal border.
On 10 November 2022, reports indicated that Grey Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, witnessed and recorded a large mass of ice breaking away from the glacier. This incident was widely reported and documented, and the video in question appears to be footage of that event. PesaCheck has confirmed that the video has been circulating online since December 2022.
PesaCheck's investigation into the Facebook post with the video supposedly showing melting ice and falling rocks collapsing into a lake on the China and Nepal border in August 2026 has found it to be PARTLY FALSE. This is part of an ongoing series of fact-checks by PesaCheck examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
PesaCheck is East Africa's first public finance fact-checking initiative, co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and incubated by Code for Africa. The initiative seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government's delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services.
The fact-check was written by senior PesaCheck fact-checker Bekalu Kibro and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck's managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
Key points
- The video shows Grey Glacier's ice sheet breaking off into Grey Lake in Chile in November 2022.
- Catastrophic flooding did occur on the Nepal-China border on 26 August 2026, but it is not related to the video.
- PesaCheck's investigation found the Facebook post with the video to be PARTLY FALSE.
