Photo: The Vaiont Dam in the Italian Alps (source: Enrico Strocci, www.flickr.com)
Do we see this type of disaster in Europe, too? Yes, though we must go back in time half a century. In 1963, nearly 2,000 people lost their lives in a similar disaster in Italy. What happened then bears a striking resemblance to the events in Nepal. In 1963, a landslide sent so much debris crashing into a reservoir that it triggered a massive wave, causing a colossal volume of water to surge over the dam. This wave completely destroyed the nearest villages in the valley. The root cause was a landslide — the most devastating one in recent European history.
What was a part of a rock slope then, was now a part of a glacier; what was a reservoir then, was now a glacial lake.
Source: Genevois and Ghirotti, 2005. The 1963 Vaiont Landslide. Giornale di Geologia Applicata 1: 41-52.
