In the Alps, a 500,000 m3 fragment of the Grandes Jorasses glacier located on the Italian part of Mont-Blanc still threatened to collapse on Friday. Dozens of residents and tourists had to be evacuated to the town of Courmayeur, Italy. Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais du Mont-Blanc and guest of Europe 1 on Friday, points to town planning.

INTERVIEW

A 500,000 m3 fragment of the Grandes Jorasses glacier, located in the Italian part of the Mont-Blanc massif, still threatened to collapse on Friday. The day before, nearly 70 people (15 residents and more than 50 tourists) had to be evacuated. "It is worrying, but it is also the life of a glacier", first relativized Jean-Marc Peillex, the mayor of Saint-Gervais du Mont-Blanc, Friday morning at the microphone of Europe 1.

>> Find the morning show of the day in replay and podcast here

Houses too close to the glacier

"It is a sign of the modification of the climate and it reminds us that man should be less proud. We went to build houses very close to dangerous sites and roads under glaciers without thinking that nature could have such reactions, "then lamented the mayor of the town at the foot of Mont-Blanc, on the French side.

A fracture caused by the heatwave?

In 2019, a 250,000 m3 block had already threatened to collapse, but had finally held up. On Thursday, sensors installed on the glacier showed that it was starting to slide. The fracture would have appeared during the last heatwave episode, ten days ago.