A chunk of a large glacier broke off, triggering an enormous landslide that has destroyed the village of Blatten.

On Wednesday, a landslide from the mountain side of Birch Glacier -- located in the Lötschental valley in northern Switzerland -- flattened homes in the Alpine town of Blatten after a large chunk of the glacier broke off, Bethan Davies, a professor of glaciology at Newcastle University in the U.K., told ABC News.

More than 4.6 million cubic yards of ice, rocks, and snow avalanched from Birch Glacier onto the village of Blatten in the canton of Valais. Around 300 people were evacuated, and at least one person is considered missing.

A massive glacier collapse overwhelmed the Swiss village of Blatten, destroying most structures and leaving a 64-year-old man missing.

A massive glacier collapse in the Swiss Alps has devastated the village of Blatten, with millions of cubic meters of ice and debris causing severe flooding and destruction. This disaster, which scientists attribute to climate change's effects on alpine permafrost,

The Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Wallis region crumpled on Wednesday ... The barrage largely destroyed the hamlet of Blatten, which had been home to 300 people. State Councilor Stephane Ganzer told Radio Television Suisse that 90% of the ...