{"id":30731,"date":"2019-04-15T06:26:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T06:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=30731"},"modified":"2019-04-15T06:26:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T06:26:23","slug":"wisshorn-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2019\/04\/15\/wisshorn-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn: a large rockslide in the Alps on 18th March 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn: a large rockslide in the Alps on 18th March 2019<\/h4>\n

On 18th March 2019, late in the night, a large rockslide<\/a> occurred at Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn in the Swiss Alps.\u00a0 The best image of the landslide can be found in a good, detailed article about the event on the Tages Anzeiger website<\/a> (the article is in German, but Google Translate does a good job<\/a>):-<\/p>\n

\"Fl\u00fcela

The large rockslide at Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn on 19th March 2019. Image by Robert Kenner, SLF, via Tages Anzeiger<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

This rockslide has been investigated by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research <\/span>(SLF)<\/a>, and some of their initial findings are described in the article in Tages Anzeiger.<\/a> The Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn rockslide occurred shortly after midnight, meaning that there were no people at risk, with a volume of about 250,000 cubic metres.\u00a0 Images from the site suggest a failure on an existing defect in the rock mass; interestingly the rockslide scar extends to the ridge:-<\/p>\n

\"Fl\u00fcela

The source area of the large rockslide at Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn on 19th March 2019. Image by Robert Kenner, SLF, via Suedostschweiz<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

Whilst most of the debris has had a comparatively limited runout (and it is interesting to see how much material remains on the steeper parts of the slope), a portion of the landslide has traveled a significant distance.\u00a0 This image, via Deutscher Alpenverein, is a rather beautiful illustration of that<\/a>:-<\/p>\n

\"Fl\u00fcela

The full runout of the large rockslide at Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn on 19th March 2019. Image by Robert Kenner, SLF, via Alpenverein<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The article in Deutscher Alpenverein<\/a> notes that lowest part of the track seems to have the characteristics of a snow avalanche (with some debris content), rather than a rockslide. The timing of the rockslide is quite interesting, occurring in the latter part of winter and at night.\u00a0 I have no doubt that SLF will investigate this event further, and will be interested to read their conclusions on triggering in due course.<\/p>\n

Acknowledgement<\/h4>\n

Thanks to Axel Volkwein for highlighting this event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 18th March 2019, late in the night, a spectacular 250,000 cubic metre rockslide occurred at Fl\u00fcela Wisshorn in the Swiss Alps <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":30736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[447,144,469,136,444],"class_list":["post-30731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-alps","tag-europe","tag-featured","tag-rockslide","tag-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}