Rising Temperatures Trigger Deadly Alpine Glacier Collapse, Causing Long-Term Impact on Europe’s Major Rivers

Nestled by Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, Barbara Achrainer contemplates the sightseers embarking on boat tours, her gaze lingering on the Alps beyond the misty horizon. The warm summer afternoon has blanketed the turquoise waters with a haze, obscuring the distant mountain range.

Achrainer, a hotel manager who had recently taken up residence at the prestigious Hotel Fafleralp perched amidst the mountainside above Blatten, found herself displaced after her team abruptly evacuated the premises. The workers fled in panic without explanation, leaving Achrainer bewildered and alone.

Unbeknownst to many, the idyllic Birch Glacier on a nearby peak had begun a rapid descent, causing officials to swiftly evacuate Blatten’s 300 residents. Within a week, as predicted, the glacier broke loose, plummeting down the steep mountain in an avalanche of ice, rock, and sand. Achrainer was working at the hotel when the lights suddenly flickered and went out. She ventured outside to a nearby cliff, only to witness the destruction below – a once-thriving village reduced to a pile of rubble.

“The devastation was beyond words,” said Achrainer. “The village was there, but it was gone – nothing but mud, rocks, and sand.” The church, town hall, and homes were buried beneath the debris.

Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich, explained that the event was unprecedented in recent Swiss history. “The question on everyone’s mind is whether this disaster was a result of climate change,” he said, admitting that it’s difficult to definitively link such an occurrence to global warming.

However, Farinotti and his team had observed increased rockfall from the glacier over the past decade, a phenomenon they suspect is related to rising temperatures in the Alps. Europe’s temperatures have been increasing at twice the global average rate, and Swiss glaciers have lost approximately two-thirds of their ice over the last century.

Farinotti has spent years studying these rapid changes. According to his research, Switzerland’s glaciers lost half their volume between 1931 and 2016, but in just six more years, they lost an additional 12%.

With crampons, a harness, and a backpack filled with monitoring equipment, Farinotti and his team journeyed up the Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhône River. They navigated the treacherous terrain, carefully leaping over deep crevasses that echoed with the sounds of melting ice and flowing water beneath.

Their mission was to set up a monitoring station that would track the glacier’s rate of melting. As they erected a pole equipped with a GPS receiver and solar panel, Farinotti studied the towering granite mountainsides that loomed over 500 feet on either side of the ice. In 1850, the glacier was flush with those ridges, but in recent years it has melted dramatically faster, according to data collected by Farinotti’s team.

“We are losing several meters of ice a year here,” he said. “Perhaps 5 or 6 meters in thickness and dozens of meters in length – that’s 2, 3, or 4% of the glacier each year.” At this rate, Farinotti predicts that the Rhône Glacier will disappear later in the century, if current climate trends continue.

Farinotti described glaciers as “nature’s water towers,” stating that they store water for centuries and release it during hot and dry summer months when rainwater and snowmelt are scarce. However, with the disappearance of these glaciers, rivers will experience significant alterations.

Hundreds of miles downstream in Duisburg, a port city on the Rhine River’s lower reaches in western Germany, Steffen Bauer checked the river depth from a tugboat. A digital sign displayed “250cm” in red neon, indicating that the water level was significantly below normal.

Bauer, CEO of HGK Shipping, explained that his company constructs barges to carry goods up and down the Rhine – Germany’s primary economic transportation artery. He said that in recent years, the late summer months have witnessed record low river depth levels, with the problem lasting longer each year.

In 2018, the water level on the Rhine River was so low that barges could no longer navigate the river. Bauer’s engineers have since developed a fleet of low-water barges capable of transporting up to 600 metric tons of goods in just over three feet of water – a necessary adaptation for an industry that produces only a hundred barges per year.

Back on the Rhône Glacier, Farinotti’s team prepared to measure the speed at which water was flowing off the glacier. Michelle Dreifuss explained their method: “Firstly, we add salt dilution to the stream and then we have two measuring points where we assess the salt concentration,” she said, holding a bottle of the solution. “With that, we can determine the amount of water flowing in a specific time period.”

Dreifuss also added a visual element – a colored dye. Within seconds of pouring it into the glacial stream, the water turned bright pink, cascading over a waterfall and disappearing into a crevasse. The vivid display captivated visiting photographers, but for Farinotti, more striking sights could be found in the yearly recession of the glacier before his eyes.

“Glaciers have become symbols of climate change due to their ability to visually represent change,” Farinotti said. “When we discuss climate change, we are talking about a 1-degree increase in global average temperatures. Would you feel that in your home? Maybe. But the effect of just 1 degree on a glacier is staggering.”

Farinotti warned that these changes will have far-reaching consequences for rivers, ecosystems, and all of Europe.