Officials install radar to better monitor Mont Blanc glacier

Officials install radar to better monitor Mont Blanc glacier | iNFOnews.ca
A box containing a radar is carried by a helicopter to the Planpincieux glacier located in the Alps on the Grande Jorasses peak of the Mont Blanc massif, above the Val Ferret, a popular hiking area on the south side of the Mont Blanc, near Courmayeur, northern Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. The radar will be used to monitor the glacier after Italian officials sounded an alarm Wednesday for threat that the fast-moving melting glacier is posing to the picturesque valley near the Alpine town of Courmayeur. The glacier, which spreads 1,327 square kilometers (512 square miles) across the mountain, has been moving up to 50 centimeters (nearly 20 inches) a day (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

COURMAYEUR, Italy – Authorities have installed a radar system to better monitor a massive area of a fast-moving glacier on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif that risks breaking off and striking a tourist valley.

The radar system installed Thursday provides constant data on movements of even millimeters. That compares with the satellite photo monitoring already in place, which requires clear skies and between six and 12 days to get comparative images.

The mayor of Courmayeur, Stevano Miserocchi, has closed a road due to the risk that a 250,000-cubic-meter mass of the Planpincieux glacier could collapse in the Val Ferret, a popular hiking area nearby.

The alarm was sounded after movements of up to 50 centimetres (20 inches) a day were recorded. Higher-than-usual summer temperatures had formed a deep fissure.

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