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Glacial lake on Mt Blanc to be drained
Thursday August 26, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
It threatens to burst and would cause a massive flood and could cause untold damage and loss of life. 900 homes are under threat in the St Gervais Valley.
French scientists made the discovery during routine tests under the Tete-Rousse glacier and found a lake containing 65,000 cubic metres of water.
The story has been reported in the French media and has now been picked up by the BBC.
Engineers plan to dig a bore hole through the glacier and pump out the water.
Check out the link to this video that we have been sent by a PlanetSKI reader on how the engineers have got the drilling equipment up the hill.
It's quite an achievement.
An alarm system has been put in place if it does burst but many locals fear the water would come down the mountain so quickly that no real evacuation could take place in time.
Over 100 years ago water from an underground lake flooded the same valley and 175 people died in the tragedy.
It's unclear if climate change has caused the problem with higher temperatures melting the ice or whether the natural melt waters of the glacier have simply been unable to drain away.
The work is expected to start shortly.
St Gervais is a ski area that lives slightly in the shadow of its more famous neighbour, Chamonix, but we visited last winter and rather liked it.
See this PlanetSKI story on the area.
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