Mattmark
The tongue of the Allalin Glacier broke off above the Mattmark dam construction site and killed 88 workers.
Date1965-08-30
Ice0.5–2 million m³
Deaths88
Of them Italian56
On 30 August 1965, a mass of ice broke off the tongue of the Allalin Glacier and fell onto the workers’ barracks of the Mattmark dam construction site. Estimates of the volume range from 0.5 to 2 million m³. Small blocks had been falling for days, which was not unusual for the glacier.
Eighty-eight people died, most of them Italian seasonal workers. Among the victims were 56 Italians and 23 Swiss. It was the worst construction accident in Swiss history.
The disaster led to stricter rules for working below hanging glaciers, and to closer monitoring of the Allalin Glacier, which has continued to calve ice at its front.
Glaciers
Sources
Sources
- Dodis – Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland. The catastrophe of Mattmark in 1965. www.dodis.ch/en/catastrophe-mattmark-1965
- swissinfo.ch (2015). The Mattmark disaster: a dramatic page in Swiss history. www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/50th-anniversary_the-mattmark-disaster--a-dramatic-page-in-swiss-history/41627972/