Mountains are among the planet’s most beautiful places. They’re also becoming the deadliest

Jean Biotel was half a watch a Live broadcast from Kleines NesthornA mountain peak in the Swiss Alps, when he realized that the screaming and calm plant was higher. He dropped his work, attended the voice and found himself unable to look away.

“The entire screen exploded,” he said.

Beutel, a computer engineer who specializes in mountain control, has seen an ice collapse. On May 28, a group of millions of tons of ice and rocks retreated to the bottom of the slope, and Putin was buried, a centuries -old village located in the valley below.

The local authorities had already postponed the village after parts of the mountain collapsed on the iceberg. A 64 -year -old man is believed to be missing.

But no one expects an event of this size.

The successive rock collapses on the ice mountain increased the pressure on the ice, causing it to melt faster and the ice mountain accelerates, ultimately destabilizing and pushing it from its bed. The collapse was surprising, violent and catastrophic. “This did not leave any moment to pick up the same,” said Biotel.

The underlying reasons will take time to check. Matthias Hao, an ice scientist at Eth Zorich University, said that the collapse of this size would have occurred due to geological factors dating back to at least decades.

“The climate change is likely to be involved,” he said, as temperatures melt the ice warming that collects the mountains together. It is a problem that affects the mountains across the planet.

People have always been fascinated by mountains for their dramatic beauty. Some make their homes under it – around them 1 billion Living in mountain societies – is drawn by adventure, the defiance of oppression.

These majestic landscapes have always been dangerous, but with the world’s temperature rising, it has become more predictable and more fate.

“We do not fully understand the danger at the present time, nor how the dangers change with climate change,” said David Peterley, the world of the Earth at the University of Hull in England.

Snow and iceberry mountains are inherently sensitive to climate change.

The mountains are very high engraved with ice -filled fractures – called the soil – which they close together. As the soil of frosty soil, the mountains can become destabilizing. “We are seeing more from a large rocky slope in many mountains as a result,” Petley told CNN.

Ice rivers are also Solving at a terrifying fast rateEspecially in areas such as the Alps and the Andes Mountains, which face the possibility of a future of ice rivers. As these rivers disappear from the old ice, they expose mountain faces, causing more rocks to fall.

There have been many major collapses in the Alps in recent years as the ice and melting of the soil melt.

In July 2022, about 64,000 tons of water, rocks and ice broke out from the Marmulalada ice in northern Italy, after unusually hot weather caused great melting. The subsequent Ice Avalanche killed 11 people in long -distance walking.

In 2023, Fluchthorn, a mountain on the border between Switzerland and Austria, collapsed, as well More than 100,000 cubic meters of rocks In the valley below.

“This seems really new,” he said. “

The melting of the ice rivers can form lakes, which can become so full that they exploded their banks, and sends water and consecutive debris below the mountains.

In 2023, the terrestrial collapse caused a large ice lake in Seekim, India, to break its banks, causing a catastrophic flood At least 55 people were killed. Last year, a Ice lake A destroyed flood in Juno, Alaska – has now occurred regular to the city.

Two years after the destroyed icy floods, Juno is scrambling for temporary flooding barriers before the next melting season, Anchorage Daily News I mentioned this week.

In addition to melting ice, there is another danger to destabilize: rain.

Mohamed Omdi, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan University of Engineering, said that extremist rains are increasingly falling on the mountains, such as rain instead of snow. His research shows every degree of global warming increases Hard rainfall events by 15 %.

This drives the risk of floods, landslides and soil erosion. Omdi said that the mountains of the northern hemisphere will become the “hot points” of severe rain.

The heavy rains this month in Sikim, a state in the Himalayas in Northern India, led to a series of landslides, killing at least three people. Pictures show Deep muddy scars Carved in the mountain, with buildings and trees blurred.

Scientists have tools to monitor mountains and warn societies. “There are great tools that can predict very precisely when the ice block decreases from the rock block,” said Hos. The difficulty lies in knowing the place of view when the natural scene is constantly changing in unexpected ways.

“This is what climate change actually do … There are more new and unrecognized situations,” said Haws.

It is especially difficult to deal with in developing countries, which do not have intensive monitoring resources.

Scientists say the only way to reduce the effect of the climate crisis on mountains is to reduce global temperatures, but some changes are already closed.

“Even if we can install the climate at the present time, (ice rivers) will continue to decline significantly,” said Hos. Nearly 40 % of the icy rivers in the world AlreadyAccording to a new study.

“We could have avoided most (negative effects) if we had acted 50 years ago and we dropped carbon dioxide emissions. But we failed,” he added.

The consequences oscillate with the increase in the number of people living in the mountains and a visit. He said, “We are more vulnerable than we are used to.”

Ludovic Ravanel, a climber in the alpine and geomorphorphis specialist who focuses on the mountain response to global warming, see the front line of the increasing risks of this landscape.

He told CNN that the mountains are the “most convincing” hot points for climate change. When he focuses on science, he maintains his emotions at the length of the arm. But as a father, and a mountain, he hit him.

“I see how important the situation is. Even then, we are only at first.”

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