18 November 2014

Rabenstein, South Tyrol: a great new landslide video (and a quick update on the Mannen landslide)

Posted by Dave Petley

Rabenstein, South Tirol

A large landslide occurred at Rabenstein in the South Tyrol northern Italy (this is the German-speaking area of northern Italy).  Fortunately it was caught on video and is now available on both Liveleak and Youtube – I have embedded the Youtube version below because it is easier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCyth3DMPGI

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The reported volume of this latest landslide is 20,000 cubic metres.  The very large amount of precursory deformation is notable, as is the very rapid fragmentation of the rock mass as the collapse developed:

Rabenstein

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This is not the first landslide event at this site – Liveleak also has a smaller, earlier landslide event, which I think occurred on 30th September:

 

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This second video is worth watching for the movement of the enormous boulder at the foot of the slope, which was safely captured by an engineered runout zone.

An update on the Mannen Landslide in Norway

Meanwhile the Mannen landslide in Norway has now clearly entered a steady secondary creep phase of movement.  The Rauma Kommune website posted an update in Norwegian two days ago, which includes this movement graph:

14_11 Mannen 3

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The commentary suggests that continued low temperatures and dry conditions suggest that little change in the rate of movement is expected in the days ahead.