17 October 2013

Bluff collapse events: new videos from the USA and Canada

Posted by Dave Petley

Two new videos have emerged on the web in the last few days showing coastal bluff collapse events:

1. Port Townsend in Washington State

This excellent video on Youtube shows the collapse of a north-facing bluff in soft glacial till.  There is a full description of the site and the event on excellent the Observations of Washington State Landscapes, Geology, Geography, History and Land Use blog by Dan McShane:

 

The video catches the initial collapse event, which happened on 13th October at about 6 pm,  really well, with fractures opening as the main block detaches, as this screenshot shows:

13_10 Port Townsend 1

 

2. Wreck Beach on the Campus of UBC in Canada

A similar, though most gradual event, also occurred on the bluffs above the famous Wreck Beach in Canada, which lies on the campus of UBC on the edge of Vancouver.  I am not sure if the embed will work here – if not then there is a video report of the event with an interview with John Clague here:


And a nice video of the collapse event here (and please be assured that the video is less racy than it might appear from the title!):



….

Thanks to Peter Weisinger for highlighting this one to me.