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Is Switzerland exposed to similar risk, given the amount of glaciers?

by tintor 20d ago

bamboozled 20d ago
Yes, but apparently they monitor the glaciers stability / Temperature closely and evacuate required
- llsf 20d ago
  And it is at a smaller scale in the Alpes than in Himalayas. Still devastating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YisdT5AJobk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YisdT5AJobk France is actively draining some of those glacier lakes to prevent them to build up over time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-xmvYe11U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-xmvYe11U
AlotOfReading 20d ago
Probably not. Most alpine valleys were carved by glaciers and have a characteristic U-shaped profile. When you get a landslide into a glacial valley, it hits the relatively flat floor and breaks itself apart. The valleys themselves are usually wide enough that they don't dam either. The alps also have significantly less relief than the Himalayas. The valley where the floods occurred in Nepal has a V-shape, and the peaks around it have much more relief. It's much easier for a large landslide to fill the bottom, creating a dam that can burst, or just continue down the valley without wasting all its energy on a broad flat plain at the bottom. The upper valley immediately below the cliff face that toppled was also a glacial U-shaped valley though, so this speculation might need adjustment as more work is done. It's worth emphasizing just how much less monitored and dangerous Nepal's mountains are though. The (greater) Himalayas are unlike any other mountain ranges I've ever seen.
- mncharity 20d ago
  > The valley where the floods occurred in Nepal has a V-shape https://earth.google.com/web/@28.34107217,85.43477356,2834.64843382a,30014.16790257d,35y,43.91969489h,54.5245525t,360r/data=CgRCAggBQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA?authuser=0 https://earth.google.com/web/@28.34107217,85.43477356,2834.6...
  - AlotOfReading 19d ago
    Didn't realize google earth's performance had gotten that bad, but yeah, you can clearly see the V shape there. You can see the U shape in the hanging valleys on the higher slopes as well as further up where the main waterway originates, but whatever form the lower regions might have had after the last LGM has been reshaped by erosion.
manarth 20d ago
It's already happening: Swiss and French Alps, Italian Alps, Dolomites… Marmolada glacier collapse, Italian Dolomites (2022) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/05/within-five-minutes-everything-changed-town-mourns-victims-of-glacier-tragedy https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/05/within-five-mi... https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-italy-canazei-glacier-collapse-with-new-threat-it-cant-escape/ https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-italy-canazei... Village buried, Blatten, Switzerland (2025) https://planetski.eu/2025/05/29/swiss-village-hit-by-landslide-as-glacier-collapses/ https://planetski.eu/2025/05/29/swiss-village-hit-by-landsli... Evacuations after rockfall (2025) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/30/rockfalls-italy-brenta-dolomites-alps-climate-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/30/rockfalls-ital... Evacuations, mudslides, bridge destroyed (2026 – last week) https://italien.news/en/chronicle/severe-weather-hits-northern-italy-hundreds-evacuated-val-genova-buried/ https://italien.news/en/chronicle/severe-weather-hits-northe... Village threatened, Kandersteg Switzerland (2026 – last week) https://planetski.eu/2026/08/19/monitoring-continues-on-mountain-above-swiss-village-threatened-by-landslide/ https://planetski.eu/2026/08/19/monitoring-continues-on-moun...
atoav 20d ago
As someone from the Austrian alps: Of course as the climate is warming the glaciers are collapsing. At this point thst has been observable with my own eyes during my relatively short lifespan. That of course means the old wisdom in which places to settle is safe no longer holds. However placed like Austria or Switzerland have top notch tech and public serviced, meaning glaciers are condtantly surveiled and such risks have a much bigger chance of getting noticed here than in the relatively poor Nepalese mountain region. But that doesn't mean black swan events are always preventable. It really hits the most kind and humble people in Nepal as I know from the stories my grandparents (both avid alpinists) told me about being there.
dredmorbius 19d ago
That and other risks. There's the 1963 Vajont Dam collapse in northern Italy (just south of the Swiss border). Nutshell summary: one of the tallest dams ever built (262m / 860ft) created a reservoir in a high valley surrounded by the sedimantary limestone slopes of Mounte Toc. Layers of limestone were separated by clay a few cm thick. As the reservoir filled, the clay was hydrated, effectively becoming a lubrication layer. On 9 October 1963 a 2km long landslide of roughly 260 million m^3 slammed at 110 kph into the reservoir creating a tsunami of 115 million m^3 of water which overtopped the dam itself in a 250m high wave. The primary impact was downstream in the Piave Valley utterly destroying several villages and towns, with 1,900--2,500 deaths. (Other waves washed across the reservoir and upstream causing additional damage.) There's a detailed Wikipedia article: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam>. Also several good videos detailing the specifics of the disaster on YouTube. Generally the Alps are at a far lesser scale than the Himalaya, but yes, glacier, flood, and landslide risks exist.

Is Switzerland exposed to similar risk, given the amount of glaciers?

by tintor 20d ago

Is Switzerland exposed to similar risk, given the amount of glaciers?

bamboozled 20d ago

Yes, but apparently they monitor the glaciers stability / Temperature closely and evacuate required

llsf 20d ago
And it is at a smaller scale in the Alpes than in Himalayas. Still devastating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YisdT5AJobk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YisdT5AJobk France is actively draining some of those glacier lakes to prevent them to build up over time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-xmvYe11U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-xmvYe11U

AlotOfReading 20d ago

Probably not. Most alpine valleys were carved by glaciers and have a characteristic U-shaped profile. When you get a landslide into a glacial valley, it hits the relatively flat floor and breaks itself apart. The valleys themselves are usually wide enough that they don't dam either. The alps also have significantly less relief than the Himalayas. The valley where the floods occurred in Nepal has a V-shape, and the peaks around it have much more relief. It's much easier for a large landslide to fill the bottom, creating a dam that can burst, or just continue down the valley without wasting all its energy on a broad flat plain at the bottom. The upper valley immediately below the cliff face that toppled was also a glacial U-shaped valley though, so this speculation might need adjustment as more work is done. It's worth emphasizing just how much less monitored and dangerous Nepal's mountains are though. The (greater) Himalayas are unlike any other mountain ranges I've ever seen.

mncharity 20d ago
> The valley where the floods occurred in Nepal has a V-shape https://earth.google.com/web/@28.34107217,85.43477356,2834.64843382a,30014.16790257d,35y,43.91969489h,54.5245525t,360r/data=CgRCAggBQgIIAEoNCP___________wEQAA?authuser=0 https://earth.google.com/web/@28.34107217,85.43477356,2834.6...
- AlotOfReading 19d ago
  Didn't realize google earth's performance had gotten that bad, but yeah, you can clearly see the V shape there. You can see the U shape in the hanging valleys on the higher slopes as well as further up where the main waterway originates, but whatever form the lower regions might have had after the last LGM has been reshaped by erosion.

manarth 20d ago

It's already happening: Swiss and French Alps, Italian Alps, Dolomites… Marmolada glacier collapse, Italian Dolomites (2022) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/05/within-five-minutes-everything-changed-town-mourns-victims-of-glacier-tragedy https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/05/within-five-mi... https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-italy-canazei-glacier-collapse-with-new-threat-it-cant-escape/ https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-italy-canazei... Village buried, Blatten, Switzerland (2025) https://planetski.eu/2025/05/29/swiss-village-hit-by-landslide-as-glacier-collapses/ https://planetski.eu/2025/05/29/swiss-village-hit-by-landsli... Evacuations after rockfall (2025) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/30/rockfalls-italy-brenta-dolomites-alps-climate-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/30/rockfalls-ital... Evacuations, mudslides, bridge destroyed (2026 – last week) https://italien.news/en/chronicle/severe-weather-hits-northern-italy-hundreds-evacuated-val-genova-buried/ https://italien.news/en/chronicle/severe-weather-hits-northe... Village threatened, Kandersteg Switzerland (2026 – last week) https://planetski.eu/2026/08/19/monitoring-continues-on-mountain-above-swiss-village-threatened-by-landslide/ https://planetski.eu/2026/08/19/monitoring-continues-on-moun...

atoav 20d ago

As someone from the Austrian alps: Of course as the climate is warming the glaciers are collapsing. At this point thst has been observable with my own eyes during my relatively short lifespan. That of course means the old wisdom in which places to settle is safe no longer holds. However placed like Austria or Switzerland have top notch tech and public serviced, meaning glaciers are condtantly surveiled and such risks have a much bigger chance of getting noticed here than in the relatively poor Nepalese mountain region. But that doesn't mean black swan events are always preventable. It really hits the most kind and humble people in Nepal as I know from the stories my grandparents (both avid alpinists) told me about being there.

dredmorbius 19d ago

That and other risks. There's the 1963 Vajont Dam collapse in northern Italy (just south of the Swiss border). Nutshell summary: one of the tallest dams ever built (262m / 860ft) created a reservoir in a high valley surrounded by the sedimantary limestone slopes of Mounte Toc. Layers of limestone were separated by clay a few cm thick. As the reservoir filled, the clay was hydrated, effectively becoming a lubrication layer. On 9 October 1963 a 2km long landslide of roughly 260 million m^3 slammed at 110 kph into the reservoir creating a tsunami of 115 million m^3 of water which overtopped the dam itself in a 250m high wave. The primary impact was downstream in the Piave Valley utterly destroying several villages and towns, with 1,900--2,500 deaths. (Other waves washed across the reservoir and upstream causing additional damage.) There's a detailed Wikipedia article: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam>. Also several good videos detailing the specifics of the disaster on YouTube. Generally the Alps are at a far lesser scale than the Himalaya, but yes, glacier, flood, and landslide risks exist.