It took millions of years to build the Alps. It took five minutes to wipe a village off the map. 🏔️💥 We investigate The Great Melt. We break down the Blatten Disaster of May 2025, where the collapse of the Birch Glacier destroyed 90% of a Swiss village. We analyze the science of Mountain Permafrost—the frozen "glue" holding our peaks together—and what happens when it fails. Finally, we discuss the "Titanite Paradox," contrasting the rapid destruction of our climate with the discovery of ancient life that survived 3.5 billion years in volcanic glass.

1. The Blatten Collapse: The day the mountain moved. We analyze the timeline. We discuss the evacuation of Blatten and the tragedy of the shepherd who stayed behind. We examine how the Kleines Nesthorn peak destabilized, dumping millions of tons of rock onto the Birch Glacier until the ice simply shattered under the weight, creating a slurry that buried the valley.

2. The Melting Glue: Why the peaks are unzipping. We expose the mechanism. We discuss the role of Permafrost as the structural adhesive of high-altitude ranges. We explain how rising temperatures are thawing this bond, turning solid rock faces into unstable piles of debris, and why geologists warn that Blatten is just the first domino in a chain of alpine collapses.

3. The Titanite Paradox: 3.5 Billion Years vs. Today. We explore the deep time contrast. We discuss the discovery of microbial "micro-fossils" preserved in Basaltic Glass and coated in Titanite. We analyze how these tiny life forms survived planetary collisions and tectonic shifts for billions of years, yet we are witnessing the erasure of human habitats in the span of a single news cycle.

The full list of sources used to create this episode can be found on our Patreon under https://www.patreon.com/c/Morgrain