A partial collapse of a glacier was likely the trigger of a devastating flash flood in Nepal that has so far left over 1,000 dead and another 4,000 missing. The disaster a world away from California has raised a question for people who live along the state’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, where glaciers still populate its highest peaks: Could something like that happen here? Andy Jones, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has spent years studying California’s glaciers, said a catastrophic event such as the one in Nepal is extremely unlikely in California – mainly because glaciers here are smaller and the region is generally drier. “It doesn’t seem like a similar event could happen in the Sierra Nevada,” Jones said.