Melting glaciers in Dolomites reveal 250 unexploded first world war munitions
The Italian army said a significant cache of unexploded first world war bombs emerged this summer from rapidly melting glaciers in the Dolomites, where soldiers recovered and neutralised 250 explosives.
Melting glaciers in Dolomites reveal 250 unexploded first world war munitions
The Italian army reported this summer that a significant cache of unexploded first world war bombs had come to light from rapidly retreating glaciers in the Dolomites, and that troops had recovered and neutralised 250 explosives.
Bombs defused in Trentino Alto Adige
The haul included Italian artillery shells and French mortar bombs, all removed and defused by the army's Julia Alpine brigade. The army recovered and neutralised 250 explosives in total, among them 18 Italian 75mm artillery shells and 37 Thevetot mortar shells, a French-made device also supplied to the Italian royal army.
The discoveries began when hikers reported several sightings of bombs during the summer, mostly in the area of Canal San Bovo in the Primiero Valley in eastern Trentino. Soldiers then carried out an extensive sweep there and across other high-altitude and glacier locations in the Trentino Alto Adige region.
Relics of the white war
The weapons date from the white war, fought between the Austro-Hungarian army and Italian troops across treacherous and bitterly cold terrain between 1915 and 1918. The fighting was concentrated in the Dolomites of Trentino Alto-Adige and the Alps of the Lombardy region, and is thought to have claimed more than a million lives.
Nor is this the first time white war relics have surfaced, as the glaciers' retreat has accelerated over more than a decade. Since the 1990s, global heating has revealed an assortment of perfectly preserved objects, from weapons to sledges, letters and diaries.
A warming-driven pattern of discoveries
Stefano Morosini, a professor at the University of Bergamo and heritage projects coordinator at Stelvio national park, where some explosives were found, said the finds track the climate.
It is very much a consequence of global heating.
He noted that dangerous artefacts emerge at the end of each summer in rising numbers; some had already exploded but many had not, making the re-emerged devices very dangerous.
The ice has also given up human remains. Dozens of corpses, some still in their uniforms, have emerged from the melting ice over the past 15 years. In one case, relatives of an Italian soldier buried him in 2017 after documents revealing his identity were found with his body on Presena glacier.
The scale of what the ice holds was underlined in 2015, when a wooden barracks dug into a cave on Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10,154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass, reappeared after its sealing ice melted. The shelter had been hastily locked up when the war ended in November 1918, and straw beds, clothes, lanterns, newspapers, postcards, coins and tinned food were found well preserved.
Safety advice and what comes next
Hikers and mountaineers are advised never to touch any explosive device they might find, regardless of where it is located, and to report discoveries promptly to police.
Morosini also cautioned that intense summer heat is making access to the glaciers in the Dolomites less safe. He pointed to the danger: eleven people died when a huge mass of the Marmolada glacier broke off in 2022.
It is becoming more and more impossible to access the glaciers during the summer because of the very long heatwave.
He added that visitors can see for themselves how fast the glaciers are retreating. A white war museum to host the relics is scheduled to open in Bormio in June 2027.
