Evacuation of Brienz
The village of Brienz in Switzerland was ordered to evacuate due to the imminent threat of a monster rockslide.
Geological Factors
The village of Brienz, located in the eastern canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, was ordered to evacuate due to the imminent threat of a monster rockslide. The evacuation order came as two million cubic meters of rock from the mountain above the village was set to come loose and crash down into the valley in the next few days.
Brienz has been judged a geological risk for some time. The village itself is built on land that is subsiding down towards the valley, causing the church spire to lean and large cracks to appear in buildings. Work was under way to try to stabilize that and there were signs the slippage might be slowing down. However, ominously, the mountainside above Brienz was breaking apart.
Switzerland's Alpine regions are especially sensitive to global warming. As glaciers shrink and permafrost high in the mountains begins to thaw, rock becomes unstable. Lower down, heavier rainfall linked to global warming causes erosion and slippage. This appears to have happened in Brienz.
Forecasts of further heavy rain all this week were what prompted the sudden decision to evacuate.