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II.—The Ice-Avalanche on the Gemmi Pass (Switzerland)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Extract

It is a noteworthy fact that, although Alpine glaciers have, during the last few years, not shown any very marked oscillations, the Central Alps have, since the year 1892, been annually visited by a disaster caused, directly or indirectly, by the bursting or falling of a glacier. Thus, in 1892, the Tête Rousse glacier of the Mont Blanc group swept away the Baths of St. Gervais; in 1893, the village of Taesch, between Viess and Zermatt, was devastated by the torrent of the Weingarten glacier, not far from the village of Randa, which was destroyed by a glacier avalanche in the year 1819; again, in 1894, the torrent of the Crête glacier (Grand Combin group, Rhone valley) suddenly poured its flood into the river Dranse, and thereby endangered the town of Martigny; while last year the record was swelled by the avalanche of the Altels glacier on the north side of the Gemmi Pass, in the Bernese Oberland.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1896

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References

1 Official measurements made in 1893, after a dry and hot summer, showed that out of 28 glaciers in Canton Valais (Rhone valley), 14 had receded 3 to 28 metres, 3 had remained stationary, 10 had advanced 2 to 30 metres, and only one (Zigior glacier, Mont Collon group) had advanced 100 metres, or about 1 ft. per day.

1 The precise date of the avalanche of 1782 is fixed by a public document, which was discovered through the efforts of Prof. Forel, of Morges, in the archives of Louèche, and enumerates the loss of life and property sustained on that occasion: “per terribilem et stupendam de summitate montis prolapsam glaciei quantitatem.” On that occasion four men, who were crossing the Spitalmatte on their way home, and ninety cattle, were killed.