CNN —Part of the summit of a mountain in the Austrian state of Tyrol has collapsed, sending more than 100,000 cubic meters of rock crashing into the valley below and triggering mudslides. The geologists have pinned the collapse on the thawing of permafrost, a long-term frozen layer of soil and rocks. When permafrost thaws it can have a destabilizing effect, said Marcia Phillips, permafrost research group leader at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Switzerland. “Water can penetrate deep into rock masses through newly opened clefts, which were previously plugged with permafrost ice,” she told CNN, explaining that this can lead rocks to fracture. But, as human-caused climate change pushes up global temperatures, leading to thawing permafrost and melting snow and glaciers, rockfalls in this region look set to become more common.

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Persons: ”, Thomas Figl, ” Figl, Marcia Phillips, Phillips, ” Phillips, Christian Gartmann, “ Organizations: CNN, WSL, for Snow, Avalanche Research Locations: Austrian, Tyrol, Fluchthorn, Switzerland, Austria, Alpine, Tyrolean, “, Swiss, Brienz, Graubünden, Davos