Swiss Mountain Crack Grows After Extreme Rainfall

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) 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. Select your language

Generated with artificial intelligence. Listening: Swiss mountain crack grows after extreme rainfall This content was published on April 7, 2026 - 09:00 5 minutes

I am a climate and science/technology reporter. I am interested in the effects of climate change on everyday life and scientific solutions. Born in London, I am a dual citizen of Switzerland and the UK. After studying modern languages and translation, I trained as a journalist and joined swissinfo in 2006. My working languages are English, German, French and Spanish.

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“Growth [of the crack] has been relatively constant: between 2-4 millimetres a day,” says local geologist Michael Digout,External link 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 or in Randa in 1991,“it's a considerable amount of material and potentially a substantial cascading hazard,” says Raffaelle SpielmannExternal link, an engineering geologist at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

In Blatten, 9-10 million cubic metres of rock, mud, ice and debris wiped out the village in the Lötschental valley. In Randa, two major rockslides above the town released almost 30 million cubic metres of material, burying rail and road links to Zermatt and damming the local river.

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