A chunk of rock twice the size of the Empire State Building will soon fall from the Eiger, one of Switzerland’s most famous peaks. Tourists from around Switzerland are flocking to the site, near the diminishing Grindenwald Glacier. Geologists blame global warming, because as the ice melts, water gets into existing cracks and opens them wider.

Here’s a newspaper story about it from The Independent.

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Stories like this don’t tell themselves.

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Here’s a video report on the rock expected to fall, and why, via SwissInfo.

Here’s a related study reporting that the European Alps have lost about half their glacial cover since 1850, and the glaciers are expected to all but disappear by 2100, according to the journal of The American Geophysical Union.

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Short version: Tourists gather to watch the world fall apart.

Literally.

Guess this must be the 21st-century.

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