Alpine environment

The Blatten landslide in Switzerland

Christophe Lambiel June 11, 2025

View on the Blatten landslide from downstream, with the Lonza river finding its way through the landslide (03 June 2025) (Image credit: Christophe Lambiel)

In the morning of May 28, 2025, the picturesque Swiss alpine village of Blatten sat quiet and serene in the Lötschen Valley. Exceptionally quiet, in fact, as the village was evacuated on May 19th after a local Natural Hazards expert spotted a worrisome change in a local mountain looming about the village, the Kleines Nesthorn: it was collapsing faster. The Kleines Nesthorn is a 3,341-meter peak wi ...[Read More]

Alpine rock instability events and mountain permafrost

Stefano Alberti and Margherita Cecilia Spreafico April 29, 2019

Figure 1 – Deposits on the Porchabella Glacier where ice was found on top of a boulder. Ice was also present in the detachment zone of the rock slope failure, as observable in the upper left corner zoomed photo (from Phillips et al., 2017[13])

Rockfalls, rock slides and rock avalanches in high mountains The terms rockfall, rock avalanche and rockslide are often used interchangeably. Different authors have proposed definitions based on volume thresholds, but the establishment of fixed boundaries can be tricky. Rockfall can be defined as the detachment of a mass of rock from a steep rock-wall, along discontinuities and/or through rock bri ...[Read More]

Permafrost fever, do we need a doctor?

Luigi Lombardo April 30, 2018

Today we will shed some light on permafrost thanks to Dr. Dmitry (Dima) Streletskiy. Dima is an Assistant Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the George Washington University. He leads several research grants focusing on various aspects of climate change and its impacts on natural and human systems in the Arctic. Streletskiy is the President Elect of the United Sates Permafrost Ass ...[Read More]