The Altels ice avalanche
A cold hanging glacier broke off the Altels in one piece: about 4 million m³ of ice, the largest ice fall ever observed in the Alps.
Date1895-09-11
Ice volume≈ 4 million m³
Speed≈ 430 km/h
Deaths6
Area buried≈ 1 km²
On 11 September 1895 the hanging glacier on the northwest face of the Altels, above the Gemmi Pass, broke away. About 4 million m³ of ice fell onto the Spittelmatte pasture below.
The ice avalanche reached an estimated 430 km/h and ran 300 m up the opposite slope. It buried around 1 km² of pasture under 3 to 5 m of ice and killed six people and 170 cattle.
Later research linked the break-off to a warm period that changed the temperature at the glacier’s base. Cold, steep glaciers frozen to their bed can become unstable as they warm, a concern for many hanging glaciers today.
Sources
Sources
- Faillettaz et al. (2011). Climate warming and stability of cold hanging glaciers: lessons from the gigantic 1895 Altels break-off. arxiv.org/abs/1101.5062