Transcript:
Last May, rocks and earth from a landslide high in the Swiss Alps tumbled down onto the Birch glacier.
The weight put so much pressure on the alpine glacier that just over a week later, it collapsed – sending a massive wave of ice and rock crashing into the valley below and burying the town of Blatten.
Fortunately, the town had already been evacuated. But one person died, and the town is mostly gone.
Huss: “It’s really a devastating sight. The whole village, including the church and the houses that were sometimes over 500 years old, were all destroyed.”
The causes of this disaster are complex. But Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zürich, warns that global warming could make similar events more likely.
When long-frozen soil melts, it can destabilize mountain slopes and contribute to rock- and landslides.
Those events can then make glaciers more likely to collapse and wreak havoc on cities and towns below.
Huss says the people of Blatten plan to rebuild in a safer area.
Huss: “But still, it’s very difficult for these people to lose all their belongings, all their life, and then restart again.”
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
