An approximate of two million cubic meters of rock from a mountain besides the little town of Brienz, in Switzerland, threatens to bury the entire town in a landslide that could happen in the following days. To prevent any tragedies, all 70 habitants in the town have fled the place.
It’s not the first time that Brienz has been at high geological risk, so the risk of the rock becoming loose and running down the hill towards the small valley was already being monitored, happily, the constant efforts were well paid as the authorities were able to detect the hazard with a lot of time in advance and by the time the warning was aired, people were already aware of the situation and had previously prepared to leave the danger zone.
The village was built on inadequate land that, just as the hillside, is moving down towards the valley. This situation was discovered long ago, and for some time, researchers noticed a slow-down in the speed of the slide and started efforts to stabilize the area, however, the mountainside was also discovered to be sliding, which abruptly stopped all initiatives to stabilize the terrain.
The geographical hazard has been blamed on the global warming based on the last similar event, in 2017, when a massive landslide ran towards the Bondo village, near Brienz, burying half the town leaving 8 people dead.
After investigation, a small but critical change in the temperature was the cause of the slide, which seems to also be the case for the Brienz situation.
