A big chunk of ice broke free Sunday afternoon, triggering an ice-debris avalanche roaring down … [+]
A big chunk of ice broke free Sunday afternoon, triggering an ice-debris avalanche roaring down the Marmolada glacier within the Dolomites, Italy. Ice fragments and boulders struck a well-liked mountaineering path 500 meters under the landslide scarp, killing not less than seven and injuring 14. In response to authorities, 15 individuals are reported nonetheless lacking.
The catastrophe struck after a month of heat climate and in the future after a record-high temperature of 10 levels Celsius was recorded on the mountain’s summit at 3,343 meters.
Rising temperatures have turn into a serious reason for concern on the subject of landslides, avalanches and rock-fall incidents in mountains.
In 2016, geomorphologist and mountaineer Arnaud J.A.M. Temme used outdated guidebooks to reconstruct rock-fall exercise alongside widespread mountaineering and climbing routes.
The analysis centered on the perceived threat of routes on 5 mountains within the Eiger area (Swiss Alps). In 69 instances (19 p.c of all studied routes) elevated threat of sudden rock-fall occasions, because the rocks have been described by skilled climbers to be extra brittle, was famous. This pattern by climbers to understand cliffs as extra unstable was particularly sturdy in the previous few a long time. The latest guidebooks additionally eliminated seven of the surveyed routes, claiming they have been too harmful.
For giant landslides, the pattern just isn’t so clear.
In 2008, researchers on the College of Innsbruck reviewed the obtainable ages of landslides and particles flows within the Central Alps. Their database, even when not full, covers 10,000 years. They discovered indications of clustering of huge mass actions through the Subboreal, a interval 4,200 to three,000 years in the past characterised by a heat and moist local weather.
Rising temperatures trigger glaciers to shrink and frozen soil to thaw. Consequently, mountain slopes are shortly dropping assist and the “icy” glue protecting them collectively. Local weather change additionally shifts precipitation patterns, with much less snow throughout winter and extra rainfall throughout summer time. Water enters the rocks by way of the now open fissures, performing as a lubricant and inflicting large blocks of rock or ice to slide – gravity will do the remaining.
