Christoph Nänni/Graubünden Civil Engineering Office
An aerial view shows the village of Brienz, with the unstable slope towering above it.
(CNN) – A Swiss village was ordered to evacuate after warnings that a large mass of rock could collapse on them in the coming days.
Brienz officials held a citizens’ event on Tuesday night and told residents they had to leave by 6pm local time on Friday.
The head of the early warning service, Stefan Schneider, said measurements in recent days indicated a “strong large-scale acceleration” and “up to 2 million cubic meters of rock material will collapse or slide in the next seven to 24 days.”
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Experts warn that such events could be a consequence of climate change.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) annual State of the Climate Report concludes that the European Alps have had a record year for glacier melt, with Switzerland being particularly hard hit, losing 6% of its glacier volume between 2021 and 2022.
Rebecca Dell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, warns that climate change is driving glacier melt in the Alps.
“This melt can destabilize the mountainsides above towns and villages. If a slope becomes too unstable, events like rockfalls can occur,” she told CNN.
The village, which has fewer than 100 residents, according to Swiss public broadcaster SRF, is located in the eastern canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.
SRF reported that geological surveys indicated that the situation had become more precarious.
According to a communication from the municipality of Albula/Alvra, the village itself has shifted a few centimeters every year for the last century, but over the past 20 years the movement has accelerated and the landslide is now moving about one meter per year.