26 July 2011
A remarkable video showing the violence and lack of warning associated with debris flows
Posted by Dave Petley
Thanks to Luigi Andrea Bedoni for the heads-up on this one.
One of the aspects of debris flows that is hard to explain is the violence of the motion and the lack of warning that they provide. In the last few years the emergence of CCTV footage has helped with this, but few videos really manage to catch this properly. A new video has appeared from a CCTV unit in Como, northern Italy. The video, which is dated 7th July, shows a rainfall triggered event. Note the apparent lack of concern on the part of first the dog and then the pedestrian less than a minute before the event. Unfortunately, I cannot embed this video, so you will have to go to this link:
The picture above is a screenshot as it overtops the wall. Very impressive!
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.