The village of Blatten, in a valley beneath the Bietschhorn Mountain in the Swiss Alps, was destroyed by a landslide on Wednesday after a part of the huge birch glacier collapsed. Authorities say a local river is now blocked and a flooded building has formed. Alexandre Agrusti/AFP via Getty Images Closed subtitles
A Swiss alpine village was mostly eliminated on Wednesday as a huge glacier carried rocks and debris off and roared along the mountainside, destroying everything on its path.
Scientists predicted a disaster, and authorities evacuated the entire village of 300 people in the Valais region south of the Swiss capital Bern on May 19.
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As natural disasters unfold, videos of glaciers collapsed aired on Wednesday afternoon. Afterwards, huge rocks, ice and dirt rose, shrouding mountains and valleys, reminding some of the atomic bomb clouds.
"What happened was an unimaginable, catastrophic worst-case scenario," Christophe Lambiel, an expert in alpine geology and glaciers at the University of Lausanne, told RTS Swiss TV.
Ranbir said scientists know something is happening, thanks to the increasing frequency of rock from the face of the mountain to the glaciers. But he said the complete collapse of the glacier was not predicted.
The Birch Glacier has collapsed above the village of Braten, Vales Local Government said in a press release Thursday. The ice and rocks were dozens of yards thick, about a mile long and a mile long. "The damage is quite large," the press release said.
"The local river has been blocked," the press release said. The challenge lies in the accumulation of water and the Longza River, which can lead to flooded lava if the river overflows onto the sediment. ”
According to police, a man, a 64-year-old man, reportedly disappeared, and the search has been temporarily suspended due to dangerous conditions.
Ranbir said birch glaciers are different from other glaciers. "This is the only glacier that has been developing over the past decade," he said. "Everyone else is backing off."
Its advancement, he said, was due to the rock surface breaking above it, which dropped the boulder, adding weight and pressure. Ranbir said the rock fall was caused by climate change.
"The increase in falling rocks is due to melting permafrost, which increases instability," he explained. He noted that over the past 10 to 15 years, permafrost has made at least 1 degree Celsius.
About 3 million cubic meters or nearly 4 million cubic yards of debris piled up on French glaciers world Raphaël Mayoraz, head of the local government's Natural Hazard Services Department, quoted it.
"Nature is stronger than humans, and the people in the mountainous areas know this very well," Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti told reporters after the disaster. "But what happened today is absolutely extraordinary. It's the worst we imagine."
Bratten Mayor Matthias Bellwald provided words of encouragement at the press conference.
"We have lost the village, but no life," he said. "This village is under gravel, but we are going to stand up. We will remain united and rebuilt. Everything is possible."