Because of climate change on Earth, rock avalanches and landslides have become more common in mountain ranges over the last decade. This is caused by melting glaciers and permafrost, which remove the glue that binds steep mountain slopes together.
However, the worst may yet to come. Thinning glaciers on volcanoes could destabilize vast chunks of their summit cones, triggering mega-landslides capable of flattening cities such as Seattle and devastating local infrastructures.
To assess the risk, Daniel Tormey of ENTRIX, an environmental consultancy group based in Los Angeles, studied a huge landslide that occurred 11,000 years ago on Planchsn-Peteroa. He focussed on this glaciated volcano in Chile because its altitude and latitude make it likeley to feel the effects of climate change.
"Around one-third of the volcanic cone collapsed," Tormey says. Ten billion cubic meters of rock crashed down the mountain and flattened 370 square kilometers of land, traveling 95 kilometer in total.
Studies have suggested that intense rain cannot provide the lubrication needed for this to happen, so Tormey concluded that glaciers must have been to blame.
With global temperatures on a steady rise, Tormey is concerned that history will repeat itself on volcanoes all over the globe. He said that many volcanoes in the temperate zones could be at risk. "There are more human settlements and activities near the slopes of glaciated active volcanoes today than there were 10,000 years ago, so the effects could be catastrophic," New Scientist quoted him as saying.
Source: ANI report/Yahoo India News
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