Rock fall at Eiger - Places of Geologic Significance on Waymarking.com

There is hardly anywhere else in the whole of the Alps where the connection between climate change and natural hazards can be observed as clearly as here, high above the Lower Grindelwald glacier.

On the evening of July 13, 2006, More than 20 million cubic feet of rock came crashing down from the east face of the Eiger (13,025 feet) in Grindelwald, Switzerland - an amount comparable to half the size of the Empire State Building.

In early June, a 16-foot-wide crack appeared near the monster chunk of rock, measuring eight inches wide, but the crack grew (at 35 inches a day) to roughly 16 feet before it gave way. Since the appearance, scientists have warned of the eventual unsheathing of the Eiger’s east face, and only days before, a 100-foot high rock formation, dubbed 'Madonna', cut loose.

The increase in massive rock fall on the Eiger stems from permafrost melting.

Permafrost is high altitude soil that stays frozen for more than two years in a row, and is responsible for holding much of the surface of the Alps together. Once this permafrost melts, water gets trapped inside the rock creating pressure. The fissure in the Eiger’s east face is a result of this pressure.

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