Environment
Expert: Permafrost melt led to a landslide in Tyrol
View of part of the Flughorn after rock masses have loosened and slid downhill. In the massive landslide in the state of Tyrol, an Alpine peak and summit cross disappeared. photo
© —/Land Tirol/dpa
At least 100,000 cubic meters of rock fell down, one peak disappeared. One thing is clear to geologists: if the ice disappears, the Alps will crumble.
According to an expert from the Austrian state, the massive landslide in Tyrol was probably triggered by the thawing permafrost in the mountains. After a reconnaissance flight, Tyrol’s chief geologist Thomas Figl estimated on Monday that at least 100,000 cubic meters of rock had fallen from the southern summit of the Flughorn massif near Galtür the day before. According to mountain rescuers, the summit and the summit cross have disappeared. The authorities still do not assume that people have been harmed.
During the helicopter flight, there were clear signs that the disappearing permafrost ice in the rock was the cause of the natural phenomenon, said Figl. “The ice is melting because of global warming, and that’s what causes the mountains to crumble,” the geologist explained. “The ice is the glue of the mountains, and that glue is slowly disappearing now”.
After the landslide comes a torrent
“Hundred meters from the summit have broken away,” estimated the head of the local mountain rescue service in Galtür, Christian Walter, in an interview with the German Press Agency. A group of mountain rescuers completed a training course below the southern Flühhorn summit on Sunday. The approximately 30 participants witnessed how a torrent formed just a few minutes after the rockfall and rushed past a mountain hut, said training manager Riccardo Mizio of the dpa. “A colleague shouted that we should leave the field immediately,” he reported. The group was not endangered by the landslide.
Some hiking routes around the Flüchthorn have been closed since Sunday as a precaution. The municipality of Galtür, however, was not affected. The village is more than nine kilometers away and lies in a different direction than the path of the rock avalanche, which is about two kilometers long. Galtür was the scene of a catastrophe in 1999 when a huge avalanche fell there. 38 people died, most were Germans.
Around 60 kilometers further south-west in Switzerland, there is also a lot of rumbling on the mountain above the village of Brienz. Huge, thick boulders thundered down over the weekend. There, a long-standing rock slide accelerated so much in the spring that the 80 or so residents were taken to safety in the first half of May as a precaution. So far, the chunks have remained lying above the village. However, it cannot be ruled out that the village could also be hit. Unlike Galtür, there is no permafrost near Brienz. The mountain has been moving there for hundreds of years.