Birch Glacier : Destroyed
A large chunk of the Birch Glacier largely destroyed an Alpine village in Switzerland.
- Birch Glacier is located in the Lötschental valley in northern Switzerland.
- The collapse of the glacier blocked the flow of the Lonza River, which runs through the valley.
- The Birch glacier was a special case: the only Swiss glacier that was advancing rather than shrinking. However, this was not because of extra snowfall.
- Its advance “was quite likely due to the pre-loading with rockfalls from this mountain, which has finally collapsed.
- Glaciologists have repeatedly expressed concerns about a thaw in recent years, attributed in large part to global warming, that has accelerated the retreat of glaciers in Switzerland.
- Switzerland, a landlocked Alpine country has the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023.
- That was the second-biggest decline in a single year after a 6% drop in 2022.
