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A huge piece of the Birch glacier in the Swiss Alps broke off on Wednesday, burying the mountain village of Blatten under ice, rock and mud. The village had been evacuated, but officials reported that despite that effort, one person is still missing following the collapse.
Authorities had issued numerous warnings over the past few weeks about a potential glacier collapse after cracks were discovered in the ice by geologists. Residents and livestock of the village of around 300 people were able to be saved thanks to the warnings, but numerous homes have been completely wiped out.
“We have lost our village, but not our heart,” said Blatten mayor, Matthias Bellwald. “We will support each other and console each other. After a long night, it will be morning again.”
The BBC reports that the Swiss government has promised funding to ensure residents can stay in the locality.
“An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley,” said Matthias Ebener, a local spokesperson.
Raphael Mayoraz, head of the regional office for Natural Hazards, announced that there may still be more evacuations necessary in areas close to Blatten.
The glacier collapse occurred at around 3:30 pm local time on Wednesday. 1.5 million cubic meters of debris crashed down the mountain and caused an earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale. Large portions of forest was also destroyed and the nearby Lonza River was dammed up with debris from the collapse.
As for what caused the massive glacier collapse, further investigation is still required. Dr. Mylene Jacquemart, a lecturer in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told New Scientist, “Clearly, events like the one in Blatten – at this point a complex process cascade – are incredibly rare, and so quantifying the changes to them is no easy feat.”
Two years ago, the village of Brienz in Switzerland was also evacuated when the nearby mountainside began to crumble. Residents of that village have since only been allowed to return to the area for short periods of time.
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