'rocks as Big as Cars' Are Flying Down the Dolomites

Geological mysteries, pleasant scenery, and calm explanation. Great for listening in the evening.

I like this article. Geoscience isn’t well understood by most people, so I usually get reminded of the Gell-Mann Effect whenever I read a news article about it. But, this one correctly frames landslides as having created these feature in the first place, and that they were always going to fall at some point, rather than treating them as eternal features.

The features we see around us that seem so constant, like mountains, rivers, shorelines, lakes and seas, are all in a state of flux. Geological processes under some of our most populous cities are moving them by measurable amounts every year, and the numbers aren’t microscopic (up and down too, not just the sideways movement many people have heard about). Where once there were sea beds, there are now jagged mountains, and there will sometime be fields and then seas again.

Fun tidbit: The formation mentioned, the Five Towers, is right across the valley from where most of the movie "Cliffhanger" was filmed (the Tofane Group around Cortina d'Ampezzo).

I've done three alpine hikes: the Tour du Mont Blanc, the Haute Route, and the Dolomites. The Dolomites were my favorite, for both the scenery (though all are spectacular) and for the quality of the mountain inns where we stayed each night. We spent one night at Rifugio Cinque Torri, which is not far from those rock towers in the story.

I took a lot of photos while hiking and while carrying the camera equipment was a bother, I am so glad I did as I can re-visit the trip, photo by photo.

All three hikes are highly recommended.

Rockfall is no joke. Even well established parks like Yosemite have seen a number of deaths from it.

>Around 300,000-400,000 cubic metres of rock came down.

Immediately made me think of the 12 Apostles. (there were only 9 stacks at the time it was renamed)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Apostles_(Victoria)

It's down to 7 now, but it's expected new stacks will emerge as the coast is eroded. This is not some geological age timeframe. My father was a civil engineer on parts of the Great Ocean Road years ago, even moving one section of the road twice in his career as erosion exceeded their initial predictions.

Just the right time to secure the budget money in the name of the upcoming Olympics.