12 October 2021
A large rock slope collapse from Punta dei Ross, Croda Marcora in the Italian Dolomites
Posted by Dave Petley
A large rock slope collapse from Punta dei Ross, Croda Marcora in the Italian Dolomites
On 9 October 2021 a large rock slope collapse occurred on the Punta dei Ross, Croda Marcora in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The failure was captured on a series of videos that have been posted online.
Probably the best video of a part of the failure process has been captured by Emanele Compagno and posted to Youtube. The really interesting part of the video starts at the 38 second mark:
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A very nice compilation of other videos has been created the Vacanze Dolimiti website, and posted to Youtube:
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The videos appear to show a major collapse that initiates near to the ridge line. As is often the case for large rock slope failures, it occurs in a series of collapses rather than in a single failure event. One of the videos shows the collapse of a pinnacle, but the fresh scar and presence of dust shows that this was not the first failure:-

A part of the collapse of the 9 October 2021 Punta dei Ross, Croda Marcora in the Italian Dolomites. Still from a video posted to Youtube.
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It appears that after collapse the debris has gone through a near freefall stage and then transitioned into a rockslide or a rock avalanche.
Jan Beutel of the University of Innsbruck has tweeted about the event:
Spectacular 50'000m^3 #rockfall just outside Cortina d'Ampezzo at Croda Marcora, San Vito di Cadore on October 9, 2021.https://t.co/wlwIyeSxLh
Local news are doing a great job with coverage of the developments https://t.co/olNtZUzkYN
[1/3]— Jan Beutel (@jan_beutel) October 11, 2021
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At altitude, refreezing of the #permafrost active layer just started. At #Matterhorn just slightly higher have just past the days with the highest displacement rates. Red in this plot means ~3cm/month in solid bedrock!https://t.co/xzNDiqq0U4 @uniinnsbruck @SLFDavos @ETH_en pic.twitter.com/UpWKA72meH
— Jan Beutel (@jan_beutel) October 11, 2021
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The timing of the collapse is interesting, occurring as the temperatures are falling after the summer.