PlanPincieux, Italy: Scientists on the Italian side of Mont Blanc Massif continue to monitor melting glaciers, where the risk of collapsing due to increased temperature threatening the valley below.
Glacier PlanPincieux, at an altitude of around 2,700 meters (8,860 feet), hangs above Planpincieux hamlet, under the South Face of Grandes Jorasses at Mont Blanc Massif in the beautiful northwestern corner of Italy.
Known as a “moderate” glacier, it is at the melting point, which is contrary to the polar glacier that is still frozen to bedrock.
That means the PlanPincieux glacier can slide faster, through water just below the surface, making it more unpredictable and dangerous for Val Furret Valley below, experts said.
“We have a significant increase in temperature and this causes faster formation of sub-glacial water flow, important underground circulation,” Valerio Segor, Natural Risk Management Director Aosta Valley, told AFP.
In recent years, Glacier PlanPincieux was submitted in a more stable position on stone, and thicker with fewer fractures, Paolo Perret said, a glacier expert at the Courthan Safe Mountains Foundation based in Courmayeur.
But because of increasing temperatures caused by climate change, “the glacier pulls into a smooth and steep surface which causes it to be in an unstable position,” Perret said.
The motion is not significant, with glaciers in extreme cases slipping as much as 150 centimeters (4 foot 9 inches) in a day, he said.
Instead, WHYMPER SERAC, the polar glacier on it towered almost 4,000 meters above sea level, can slide between two and 20 centimeters per day, Perret said, resulting in “collapse”.
A large ice beam of WHYMPER SERAC measuring 15,000 square meters fell to the land last October, the day after the authorities prohibited access to the road below.
The Glacier PlanPincieux movement – and those above them – are closely monitored through radar, and regional safety plans anticipate various potential scenarios.
“Extreme scenario” will be falling from the 800,000 meter ice cube to the village and the road below, said Segor.
“But there is no absolute guarantee that it will really behave like that.”