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Geological Formations

Tête Rousse Glacier

Erosional and Karst Formations

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Tête Rousse Glacier is a small glacier in the Mont Blanc massif of the French Alps, on the northwestern slopes of the Aiguille du Gouter about 11 kilometers upstream from Saint-Gervais-les-Bains. As of 2007 it covered just 0.08 square kilometers, with ice up to 75 meters thick spanning an elevation of 3,100 to 3,300 meters. The glacier is remembered for a catastrophic outburst flood in 1892, when a sudden release of water destroyed the hamlet of Bionnay and flooded a bath house in Saint-Gervais, killing more than 200 people; because water pockets continue to form within the ice, roughly six million euros have since been spent monitoring and draining the glacier to protect the roughly 3,000 people living below it.

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