An unstable melting glacier on the Italian side of Mont Blanc is being watched closely by scientists, who fear rising temperatures pose a threat to the valley below.
The Planpincieux glacier, perched at an altitude of 2,700 meters above the village of the same name, is below the south face of the Grandes Jorasses.
Qualified as "temperate", it is already melting, unlike polar glaciers still frozen to the rocky layer.
Which means the Planpincieux glacier can slide faster due to the layer of water it sits on, making it more dangerous for the Val Ferret below, experts say.
"We are facing a significant rise in temperatures, which accelerates the formation of the water layer under the glacier", explains Valerio Segor, the director of natural risk management in the Valle d'Aosta, in the north-west of Italy.
Due to the rise in temperatures caused by climate change, it "only moved on a smooth surface making it more unstable".
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The glacier slides slowly but surely, up to a meter and a half a day in extreme cases, he said, while the serac Whymper, a polar-type glacier overlooking it at an altitude of 4,000 meters, slides on a distance of 2 to 20 centimeters each day.
