Climate Change Causes Swiss Mountain Peak to Collapse

"Considering the ongoing temperature increase in the Alps, more events are probable," one expert said of the changes in the area.

Summer has arrived in the Swiss Alps, but the warmth is causing some unprecedented problems for the picturesque landscape. Locals saw a foreboding sign of what's to come earlier this month at the Fluchthorn, the second-highest summit in the Silvretta Alps on the border with Austria. 

Video captured the sudden collapse of the mountain's peak, sending more than 3.5 million cubic feet of rock crashing into the valley below. "Half of the summit was torn away by the demolition," mountain rescuer Riccardo Mizio told Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung. 

It all happened after a string of heatwaves in the country. Permafrost is more prone to melting in the summertime, but higher temperatures in recent years combined with warmer weather has led to more thawing deeper down into the earth. 

The main peak of Fluchthorn fell approximately 330 feet during the instantaneous event; the middle peak, which stands at 11,145 feet, is now the highest point of the mountain. As a result, the Fluchthorn is now around 60 feet shorter than it previously was. While Switzerland has seen mountain collapses like these before, the size of this one surprised everyone from scientists to residents of the villages below.

Jan-Christoph Otto, a geologist at the University of Salzburg, explained what likely happened underneath the mountain. "The bigger the size of the event, and in this case it was big, the deeper the thaw must have been," he told LiveScience. "This mountain peak has been frozen for probably thousands of years."

Because it took a while for climate change's heating effects to reach deep into the rock, he believes "the mountain peak failure at Fluchthorn is most likely the result of extreme temperatures last summer or fall."

Sadly, it looks like these types of incidents aren't ending any time soon, especially as scientists continue to be baffled at the worsening degree of global warming. "Considering the ongoing temperature increase in the Alps, more events are probable," Otto stated plainly.

In the breathtaking snow-covered Alps, the hills may soon be alive with the sound of rockslides.