Swiss village 90% destroyed by partial glacier collapse; one person missing
The village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps was almost entirely destroyed on Wednesday, May 28, by ice, mud and rock that fell from a glacier in the surrounding mountains. The village was home to 300 residents. Approximately 90% of the village’s buildings were crushed during the glacier collapse. The flow of the adjacent Lorza River was also blocked.
At around 3:30 p.m. local time (13:30 UTC), a portion of the Birch Glacier fell from the summit of Petit Nethorn Mountain onto Blatten, which is located in the Valais Canton in southern Switzerland. The area of the glacier collapse is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the iconic Matterhorn.
No injuries were reported by authorities, as the village was evacuated weeks earlier. The British news service Reuters reports one person is missing.
10 million tons of rubble dropped from collapsing glacier
Raphael Mayoraz, chief of the Natural Dangers Service for Valais, told the French-language Swiss news outlet Le Temps that about 10 million tons (9 million metric tonnes) of rubble fell onto the doomed village and the alpine valley around it. He said it appeared that most of the glacier had collapsed:
We don’t know yet what’s left on top, but almost everything fell. It’s the worst of the envisaged scenarios that it (the collapse) produced.
Video provided by Le Temps shows a lake forming from the trapped waters of the now blocked Lonza River. Simulations had predicted this scenario, and the possibility that a rupture in the natural dam that formed on Wednesday could lead to additional future debris flows.
Role of climate change uncertain in unprecedented glacial collapse
How Earth’s changing climate influenced this catastrophe is uncertain. Climate expert Christian Huggel of the University of Zurich told Reuters that various factors led to Birch Glacier’s disintegration. However, the local permafrost, he said, has recently been affected by climbing temperatures in the Alps. Because loss of permafrost can degrade the stability of mountain rock, Huggel told Reuters he believes climate change played some role.
Huggel also said the level of damage caused by the glacier collapse hasn’t been seen in the Swiss Alps in this century or the one preceding it.
The German-language Swiss news outlet Pomona reported that the debris cone left by the glacier’s collapse stretches for 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) along the path of the Lorza River. The debris pile is between 160 and 650 feet (50 to 200 meters) wide. Mayoraz said:
It’s like a mountain.
Bottom line: A glacier collapse in the Swiss Alps has buried a village and blocked a nearby river. At least one person is reported missing.
Read more: Less ice for mountain glaciers. What’s it mean?
The post Glacier collapse catastrophe as massive surge buries village and river first appeared on EarthSky.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/Q3HLkPA
Swiss village 90% destroyed by partial glacier collapse; one person missing
The village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps was almost entirely destroyed on Wednesday, May 28, by ice, mud and rock that fell from a glacier in the surrounding mountains. The village was home to 300 residents. Approximately 90% of the village’s buildings were crushed during the glacier collapse. The flow of the adjacent Lorza River was also blocked.
At around 3:30 p.m. local time (13:30 UTC), a portion of the Birch Glacier fell from the summit of Petit Nethorn Mountain onto Blatten, which is located in the Valais Canton in southern Switzerland. The area of the glacier collapse is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of the iconic Matterhorn.
No injuries were reported by authorities, as the village was evacuated weeks earlier. The British news service Reuters reports one person is missing.
10 million tons of rubble dropped from collapsing glacier
Raphael Mayoraz, chief of the Natural Dangers Service for Valais, told the French-language Swiss news outlet Le Temps that about 10 million tons (9 million metric tonnes) of rubble fell onto the doomed village and the alpine valley around it. He said it appeared that most of the glacier had collapsed:
We don’t know yet what’s left on top, but almost everything fell. It’s the worst of the envisaged scenarios that it (the collapse) produced.
Video provided by Le Temps shows a lake forming from the trapped waters of the now blocked Lonza River. Simulations had predicted this scenario, and the possibility that a rupture in the natural dam that formed on Wednesday could lead to additional future debris flows.
Role of climate change uncertain in unprecedented glacial collapse
How Earth’s changing climate influenced this catastrophe is uncertain. Climate expert Christian Huggel of the University of Zurich told Reuters that various factors led to Birch Glacier’s disintegration. However, the local permafrost, he said, has recently been affected by climbing temperatures in the Alps. Because loss of permafrost can degrade the stability of mountain rock, Huggel told Reuters he believes climate change played some role.
Huggel also said the level of damage caused by the glacier collapse hasn’t been seen in the Swiss Alps in this century or the one preceding it.
The German-language Swiss news outlet Pomona reported that the debris cone left by the glacier’s collapse stretches for 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) along the path of the Lorza River. The debris pile is between 160 and 650 feet (50 to 200 meters) wide. Mayoraz said:
It’s like a mountain.
Bottom line: A glacier collapse in the Swiss Alps has buried a village and blocked a nearby river. At least one person is reported missing.
Read more: Less ice for mountain glaciers. What’s it mean?
The post Glacier collapse catastrophe as massive surge buries village and river first appeared on EarthSky.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/Q3HLkPA
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