A 250-metre-long crack on a Valais mountainside has become a stark sign of the Alps’ growing vulnerability to extreme rainfall. The widening crack in the mountain has raised concerns of a potential landslide, and of extreme flooding in a nearby village. “Growth [of the crack] has been relatively constant: between 2-4 millimetres a day,” says local geologist Michael Digout, who has been monitoring the “Faille des Fios” scarp since last autumn. This is fast for a geological process. The main fracture is now 80 centimetres to 1 metre wide, and smaller secondary cracks have appeared nearby like river tributaries. In a worst-case scenario, up to 500,000 cubic metres of material could crash down, block the Navizence River and cause flooding in Chippis – home to 1,500 residents - in the Rhone Valley below. >>A short video by Swiss public broadcaster RTS showing the "Faille des Fios" mountain crack. While this is a much smaller volume than fell in last year’s massive landslide in Blatten ...
