Climate Change MIGHT Have Contributed To Massive Swiss Glacial Collapse; Is Causing Other Glacier Crises

A massive avalanche of ice, rocks and other glacial
debris roads down the slopes  in the Swiss Alps in 
late May, ultimately burying most of a village.
Many scientists think climate change 
contributed to the massive collapse. 

 You might have seen dramatic video on the news at the end of May of what appears to be an entire mountain crashing down on what was a tiny, picturesque Swiss village, burying it in mud, rocks debris and water.  

What hit was a glacial collapse in the Swiss Alps.

It began when a rock slope above the glacier began to crack and fall apart, depositing rocks atop the glacier.  

Swiss emergency officials noticed this development unfolding. It alarmed them enough to evacuate Blatton, the village that was eventually 90 percent buried by the debris flow.

On May 28, either the glacier collapsed under the weight of the rocks accumulating on top of it, or more of the rocks above it suddenly slid, causing a chain reaction that sent new rocks, the accumulated rocks and most of the glacier roaring down the mountainside, mostly burying the village, 

Since Blatton had been evacuated ahead of the calamity, there is only one reported casualty.  A 64-year-old man was reported to be in the village when the glacier collapsed. 

The collapsed glacier dammed a river on the valley floor, forming a lake that flooded most of the houses that weren't directly hit by the glacier and landslide. Worries are growing the new lake will bust through the glacial debris, causing a flash flood downstream. 

The astounding glacial collapse set off debate as to whether and to what extent climate change caused or contributed to the calamity. 

 Per the Washington Post:

"Experts are mixed in their views over whether the collapse was caused by climate change. Christophe Lambiel, a geologist a the University of Lausanne, told Switzerland's national broadcaster that the glacier had previously been supported by a high rock face encased in permafrost, which had degraded over the past 10 to 15 years, putting pressure on the glacier.

He said climate change 'probably' played some role in the collapse."

Common Dreams also reports many climatologist and glaciologists suspect climate change played a role, and fear similar events loom in the future: 

"Mathieu Morlighem, a glaciologist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told ABC News that permafrost thaw under and along the sidewalls surrounding the glacier likely caused the collapse.

'What happened to the Birch Glacier is what we would expect from rising temperatures in the Alps and elsewhere, he explained. 'I think we can expect more events like this in the future.'"

More study is going to be needed to what extent climate change influenced the May glacial collapse in Switzerland.

But melting glaciers and permafrost in the mountains and Arctic regions are threatening new disasters. 

For instance, melt water can collect behind ice in a glacier, then suddenly break through, causing catastrophic downstream floods. That happened last summer in Juneau, Alaska, when a so called "glacial lake" formed behind ice on a glacier

That lake eventually abruptly broke through, causing a record-setting flood along the Mendenhall River, flooding at least 300 homes.

These so-called outburst floods have always occurred. But these  outburst floods are an increasing threat in Alaska, the Andes, Himalayas, European Alps, Iceland and Alaska due to the added melting brought on by climate change. 

Mountain  glaciers also supply critical water supplies for as many as 2 billion people worldwide. Over the course of centuries, bits of glaciers would melt in the summer, only to start building back up in the winter. 

Now, they're melting faster than they can rejuvenate. Which is why you get these glacial collapses and glacier outbursts. There's just too much water and melting all at once. 

Eventually, though, the glaciers will disappear, erasing sources of drinking water and especially agricultural irrigation.

This is all just one more worry created by climate change.  If mountain glaciers become unstable, so do regional societies, and public safety.  Every time I turn around, it seems, I notice another negative effect of climate change.  

VIDEO

Worth seeing again as it's so spectacularly awful. Video shows the mass of rock, ice and other debris roaring down the slopes of the Swiss Alps in late May. Click on this link to view, or if you see the the image below, click on that.