{"id":7860,"date":"2014-01-29T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T00:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=7860"},"modified":"2014-01-28T19:00:10","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T19:00:10","slug":"tramin-rockfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2014\/01\/29\/tramin-rockfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Tramin (Termeno), Italy: a very dramatic rockfall"},"content":{"rendered":"
The original Tramin (Termeno) rockfall<\/h5>\n

On 21st January about 4000 cubic metres of rock detached from a near vertical rock cliff at Tramin, South Tyrol, Italy.\u00a0 (This is the German speaking part of northern Italy – in Italian this place is known as Termeno in case you are confused by the reports).\u00a0 The rockfall appears to have been caused by the catastrophic collapse of a rock pillar.\u00a0 The major part of the debris consisted of a number of enormous boulders that slid and rolled down the slope before striking a 300 year old building below.\u00a0 SudTirol News<\/a> has a nice image that provides an overview of the event, including the site of the original pillar and the track of the debris:<\/p>\n

\"Tramin\"<\/a>

http:\/\/www.suedtirolnews.it\/d\/artikel\/2014\/01\/22\/tramin-riesige-felsbrocken-donnern-zu-tal.html<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

However, the best gallery of images of the Tramin rockfall\u00a0 (there are 12, and they are all classics) is on the Salto Wirtschaft website<\/a>.\u00a0 This image shows the effects of one of the boulders on a 300 year barn, which it rolled straight through:<\/p>\n

\"Tramin\"<\/a>

http:\/\/salto.bz\/de\/article\/26012014\/steinschlag-tramin-gigantische-luftaufnahmen<\/p><\/div>\n

…<\/p>\n

The boulder continued rolling downslope, and eventually stopped in a field.\u00a0 Interestingly, the other (even larger) boulder in the field is from an earlier event, so the level of hazard was clear:<\/p>\n

\"Tramin\"<\/a>

http:\/\/salto.bz\/de\/article\/26012014\/steinschlag-tramin-gigantische-luftaufnahmen<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

Whilst this boulder stopped moving just as it reached the main part of the building – a very lucky escape for the house and its occupants:<\/p>\n

\"Tramin\"<\/a>

http:\/\/salto.bz\/de\/article\/26012014\/steinschlag-tramin-gigantische-luftaufnahmen<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

A really interesting aspect of this event at Tramin is the nature of movement of the boulders.\u00a0 They have both left extremely deep furrows in the soil, but I am sure that they were rolling rather than sliding, and hence the undulating nature of the levies on either side of the track:<\/p>\n

\"Tramin\"<\/a>

http:\/\/salto.bz\/de\/article\/26012014\/steinschlag-tramin-gigantische-luftaufnahmen<\/p><\/div>\n

..<\/p>\n

Mitigating the remaining hazard at Tramin<\/h5>\n

The rockfall left a tower of rock in place that needed to be mitigated, so over the last few days blasting has been undertaken to try to remove the remaining material.\u00a0 This UAV video<\/a> shows rather nicely the site and the dangerous pillar:<\/p>\n