500 residents evacuated before catastrophic glacier collapse in Switzerland

A massive Swiss glacier collapse buried an entire village under millions of cubic yards of debris, but timely evacuations prevented casualties in this climate crisis warning.

Down with a tremendous roar, burying an entire village under millions of cubic yards of ice and debris: it’s the Birch glacier in Canton Valais (in Switzerland) that detached from the mountain in recent hours and plummeted into the valley, overwhelming everything in its path. Fortunately, the small town of Blatten just below had been preventively evacuated due to the imminent avalanche risk.

Experts had indeed predicted the event: on Wednesday, May 28, a large portion of the Birchgletscher broke away from the mountain, causing a roar throughout the valley, power blackouts, and ground movement registered by seismographs as a magnitude 3.1 earthquake.

Unprecedented scale of destruction

The landslide covered the valley floor with a layer of material several dozen yards high, and the course of the Lonza River was also obstructed by the mass reaching several yards in height. At the moment, however, no injuries have been reported.

The village, where just under 500 people lived, was evacuated a couple of weeks ago when initial crumbling occurred above the Birch glacier. In the following days, the mass of rocky debris, around 20 million pounds, had triggered the downward movement of the glacier that has now collapsed.

Climate crisis alarm bells

“The collapse of the Birch glacier represents an alarm bell for all Alpine territories and strongly emphasizes the urgency of strengthening mitigation and adaptation policies to the climate crisis in mountain areas, as well as in downstream territories,” concludes Giorgio Zampetti, general director of Legambiente, an italian association.

“To counter a climate crisis that moves fast and knows no borders, urgent and immediate actions are needed along with European glacier governance featuring greater international cooperation between researchers, civil society, and institutions, together with information and awareness campaigns to complement the precious high-altitude monitoring that, in the case of the Birch glacier, allowed precautionary measures to be taken by evacuating the local population and livestock as early as May 19.”

Accelerating warming threatens alpine regions

According to the latest scientific studies, Central Europe, including the Alps and Pyrenees, is warming at roughly twice the rate of the rest of the world, and phenomena such as glacier melting, landslides, and debris flows are increasing.

“This is why urgent intervention is needed as soon as possible, as the UN reminds us in this International Year of Glaciers, where no further delays are acceptable,” Zampetti added.