Blatten, Switzerland | The Swiss Village Buried by Too Much Weight

On May 28, 2025, the Birch Glacier in the Swiss Alps collapsed and buried almost all of the village of Blatten in the Lötschental valley. Most headlines called it another melting glacier. But the Birch Glacier wasn't melting. It was growing. For two weeks, a crumbling peak above it had been dumping rock onto the ice, in places more than 80 metres deep. That rock shielded the glacier from the sun and pressed it down until it slid faster and faster toward a steep edge. Then it broke. Nine million cubic metres of ice and rock fell 1,200 metres, crossed the valley floor and climbed the opposite slope, travelling much further than a normal avalanche should. This video explains the physics behind the collapse: why the weight mattered more than the heat, why the flow behaved almost like water, and why early warning saved the villagers but not their homes. Sources: ETH Zurich & WSL fact sheet, Swiss Seismological Service, and studies published in Communications Earth & Environment (2025, 2026). #Blatten #GlacierCollapse #SwissAlps