Swiss Alps are destabilizing due to global warming

Rockfall incidents are starting to increase as a result of temperature rise and glacier melting in the Swiss Alps.

Swiss Alps that are located south, south-east of Switzerland, create a mountainous terrain where many villages and towns have been established. Over the past years, rockfalls in those regions have increased causing casualties and infrastructure damage. According to scientists, the phenomenon is associated with global heating.

During a 20-year period, a 0.5 °C temperature rise has been recorded in those mountains. Heating was detected as deep as 100 meters below the ground.

Warming is linked with rockfalls as geological processes including weathering and erosion are accelerated. Moreover, ice melting causes severe destabilizing on the mountainous slopes. Glacier may offer support and protection from rainfalls but once they are gone, water enters the rock formations through their fractures which are eroded while pore water pressures increases.

Regardless of any measures applied to mitigate climate change, half of the Alpine glaciers will be vanished by 2050. “If we reach our climate goals, the hope would be that the glaciers will recover. But even if we reach them, it will take a while for the climate to recover, and the glaciers will respond afterward,” Andreas Bauder, a glaciologist at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, stated. 

A potentially huge rockfall was recently spotted at Öschinen Lake, a region which attracts many people during summer. A large mass of rock is hanging out of a mountainous cliff near the lake and is moving at a spectacular rate of 2 centimeters per day. According to experts, the hazardous area consists of about 15 million m³ of rock. The movement is constantly recorded by specialized instruments and experts are alert to detect a future collapse.

Fernando Giovanoli, the vice-mayor of Bregaglia, a municipality located in the Maloja Region in the canton of Grisons where rockfall incidents are very common, stated: “The mountains are always dangerous – we just underestimate it because they look so peaceful. But you’re never safe in the mountains. Not 100%.”

Experts alert that other type of landslides, including mudslides and debris flow are also increasing as a result of temperature rise.