Swiss Alps under threat due to rapid melting of glaciers

A year after a devastating glacier collapse in the Swiss village of Blatten, the country's authorities are increasingly concerned about the consequences of climate change for mountain regions. This was reported by Bloomberg, according to UNN.

Details

In May 2025, the Birch glacier and part of a mountain collapsed into the Lötschental valley in the canton of Valais. Within minutes, the village of Blatten practically disappeared under 20 million tons of ice and rock. As a result of the disaster, about 90% of the settlement was buried, and the thickness of the debris layer reached 32 meters in some places.

Glaciers are melting at record rates

Scientists explain that the disaster was a consequence of permafrost degradation and rapid glacier melting. In Switzerland, temperatures have already risen by 3°C compared to the pre-industrial period, which is more than double the global average. According to the Swiss glacier monitoring network Glamos, the country's 20 largest glaciers have lost a quarter of their volume since 2015 alone.

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After the collapse, the geography of the valley changed significantly. Some roads are still destroyed, and new lakes have formed on the sites of former settlements. Additionally, in late April of this year, heavy rains damaged a 35-meter bridge in the Lötschental valley, which may cause popular tourist routes to remain closed for several years.

Local residents admit that life in the Alps is becoming increasingly dangerous.

"We do not live in an easy landscape,"

Meanwhile, Matthias Huss, a senior researcher at ETH Zürich, warned that the melting process is only accelerating: "We are seeing these very strange years that only existed in crazy models, and now they are happening in reality."

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