Val Pola landslide

[3] This resulted in a fracture which detached an estimated volume of 35–45 million cubic metres of old debris from the Northern slope of the Mount Zandila (Eastern side of Pizzo Coppetto[5]) first detected on 25 July.

[6] The debris from the Val Pola rock avalanche and landslide impounded on the Adda River creating a lake with 6 million cubic meters of water.

[9] The resulting lake created the floodability threat, because the accumulated huge amount of water threatened to breach the debris dam and flood the Adda valley.

[7][2][10] The disaster coincided with the change of the government of Italy, including the replacement of the Minister of Civil Protection, which resulted in a certain amount of policy vacuum and non-optimal decisions.

[7] By appointment of the Ministry of Civil Protection, a large monitoring system was installed on many different sites throughout the Valtellina (Campofranscia, Spriana, Torreggio, Valpola), to check the progress of the landslide phenomena.