10 December 2018
Spatnik basecamp – that was close!
Posted by Dave Petley
Spantik basecamp – that was close!
In August Shanyan Anwer posted the following video onto Youtube, showing an extraordinary near-miss for a camp, and its occupants, from a large boulder. The owner of the video is Shayan Anwer, who posted it on Twitter:-
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Near-misses do not come much more near than that. The video was apparently shot at Spantik basecamp, located between Baltistan and Hunza in northern Pakistan. In fact the video, which is very short, is worth closer inspection. Early in the video the boulder can be seen heading down the slope towards the camp:-
The first sign of the boulder at Spantik basecamp. Still from a Youtube video. The video is by Shayan Anwer.
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Just how close this rock came to the camp, and the person holding the camera, can be seen here:-
The boulder as it flew over the camp at Spantik basecamp. Still from a Youtube video. The video is by Shayan Anwer.
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Next of course it comes terrifyingly close to another person:-
A very near miss for a person at Spantik basecamp. Still from a Youtube video. The video is by Shayan Anwer.
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This video does emphasise a few points about rockfalls. The boulder is tabular in shape, which in some circumstances can generate extreme mobility. This happens when the boulder starts to rotate around its shortest axis, behaving like a wheel. In such conditions boulders are comparatively stable, skipping down the slope in large bounces. As the boulder itself is uneven, and the surface is very rough, the path is somewhat unpredictable. In this case the boulder appears to bounced away from the people located downslope of the camera, in part because it struck softer debris, which absorbed some of the energy of the rock.
There is little doubt that this was a very lucky escape. That boulder could have struck any of the people or any of the tents.
Acknowledgement
Thanks to Fabien for pointing this one out to me. I had somehow missed it during the summer! It is a remarkable video. The video is by Shayan Anwer. Thanks to Komal Uzair for providing information about the origin of the film.
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.
I wonder how many times it skipped in the lake? It was well shaped and and had good rotation.
In the Youtube settings, slow the speed down to 1/4. The boulder impacts and damages the tent before passing between the people. There is an equally large boulder in the background that passes between the red and yellow tents that is visible beginning at 2 seconds.
Also remarkable that it punched a hole in the grey tent without flattening just after it passed the cameraman.
I wonder if someone’s experience like this may have inspired their inventing the wheel.
I would like to make notice that the whole camp is located on an unconsolidated slope deposit area made by big blocks… what worse place to locate a camp!