science

South Lhonak Lake

South Lhonak Lake is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand South Lhonak Lake rather than just read about it. In short: South Lhonak Lake is a glacial-moraine-dammed lake, located in Sikkim's far northwestern region. It is one of the fastest expanding lakes in the Sikkim Himalaya region, and one of the 14 potentially dangerous lakes susceptible to Glacial lake outburst flood (GLOFs).

Key takeaways

South Lhonak Lake belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect South Lhonak Lake to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of South Lhonak Lake from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

South Lhonak Lake is a glacial-moraine-dammed lake, located in Sikkim's far northwestern region. It is one of the fastest expanding lakes in the Sikkim Himalaya region, and one of the 14 potentially dangerous lakes susceptible to Glacial lake outburst flood (GLOFs).

Location The lake is located at 5,200 m (17,100 ft) above sea level. It formed due to the melting of the Lhonak glacier.

Rapid growth The lake is rapidly growing in size in an abnormally rapid manner due to the melting of the lake's associated South Lhonak glacier and additional melt water from the adjacent North Lhonak and main Lhonak glaciers. According to the declassified CORONA data from 1962, which was then collected by the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States Air Force between 1960 and 1972 as a part of America's first space reconnaissance program, the lake first appeared as a supraglacial lake at the glacier's snout on November 24, 1962. The first occurrence of a separate lake was identified in the 1977 Landsat program's multispectral scanner (MSS) data. The lake's area was also traced using MSS data and the glacier's retreat. The lake had an area of 17.54 hectares in 1977 and was connected to the glacier terminal. Later, the lake's areal extent was determined using 1989, 2002, and 2008 temporal satellite data. Between 1977 and 2008, the lake's surface area rose by 81.1 hectares.

2023 outburst flood

In October 2023, heavy rains caused massive landslide inside the lake due to which the water flow over the embankment and subsequently breach its embankments and cause a severe flood in the Teesta river basin, causing widespread property damage and killing at least 40 people.

Further reading Hazra, P., & Krishna, A. P. (2021, July). AHP Based Assessment of Glof Susceptibility of South Lhonak Glacial Lake, Sikkim Himalaya, India. In 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS (pp. 5489-5492). IEEE. doi:10.1109/IGARSS47720.2021.9553439.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with South Lhonak Lake

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what South Lhonak Lake claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to South Lhonak Lake before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about South Lhonak Lake ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of South Lhonak Lake

In research: South Lhonak Lake appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses South Lhonak Lake in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: South Lhonak Lake is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Glacial lakes of India, Lake stubs, Lakes of Sikkim, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for South Lhonak Lake outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study South Lhonak Lake in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what South Lhonak Lake means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain South Lhonak Lake out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is South Lhonak Lake in simple terms?

Why does South Lhonak Lake matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study South Lhonak Lake?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on South Lhonak Lake.