A significant portion of a glacier in the Swiss Alps has recently detached from the mountainside, resulting in a landslide of rock, mud, and ice that swept down onto the village of Blatten.
Authorities had been issuing warnings about the potential collapse of the Birch glacier for several weeks as visible cracks started to appear in the ice. Consequently, residents and livestock were evacuated from Blatten earlier this month, a community of approximately 300 people situated in the valley beneath the glacier.
Webcam and drone footage captured on 28th May revealed massive clouds of dust engulfing the Alpine valley as the glacier disintegrated, unleashing a torrent of mud and boulders that engulfed the hillsides and most of the village.
While no casualties have been reported so far, there is one individual who remains missing following the incident, as confirmed during a press conference held in a neighboring village on the same day. The village of Blatten now lies mostly buried under debris. The collapse of the glacier triggered an earthquake registering 3.1 on the Richter scale, according to seismic readings.
Visual evidence from the site indicates that apart from the village, extensive sections of forest have also been devastated, with debris obstructing the nearby Lonza river, heightening the risk of flooding in the area.
“Nature surpasses human strength. The mountain inhabitants are aware of this fact. Nonetheless, today we witnessed an extraordinary occurrence. The incident has rendered us speechless, and the images are truly shocking,” remarked Federal Councillor Albert Rösti during the press conference, as reported by the Swiss outlet Blick.
Glaciers in the Alps are growing increasingly unstable due to rising global temperatures. Statistics from Switzerland reveal that glaciers lost 10% of their volume between 2022 and 2023 alone.
The melting of glaciers can trigger rockfalls, ice avalanches, and debris flows cascading into the valleys below. Research indicates that small-scale rockfalls and landslides are on the rise in the Alps due to climate change.
However, further investigation is necessary to fully comprehend the events at Blatten, according to Mylène Jacquemart from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. This includes assessing the extent of the glacier’s detachment and the underlying causes. “Clearly, events like the one in Blatten – currently a complex process cascade – are exceedingly rare, making it challenging to quantify the alterations,” she explains.
Determining shifts in the frequency and severity of large landslides poses a considerable challenge, adds Jacquemart.
“The alterations induced by climate change in high-altitude regions (increased meltwater, reduced snow cover, warmer temperatures, more rainfall instead of snow) do not bode well for rock stability,” she notes. “However, would this event have occurred in the absence of climate change? It is a distinct possibility. The primary concern for hazard management is whether there is a notable change in the frequency of such events. Are occurrences that typically happen every decade now transpiring annually? At present, we do not observe a definitive shift in the frequency of such large-scale events.”
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