Citation

No Author(s) Listed. Nature 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/d41586-020-02514-y

PMID

32879481

Abstract

Rock falls and rock avalanches, which are dangerous enough in their own right, sometimes unleash an additional peril: powerful blasts of air that can flatten trees more than a kilometre away. Now scientists have documented the conditions that make these 'airblasts' more likely.

Although some airblasts have proved fatal, little research has been done to document their destructive potential, and landslide risk assessments do not account for them. To fill this gap, Ivanna Penna at the Geological Survey of Norway in Trondheim and her colleagues analysed airblasts that have occurred around the world, including a previously unreported 2015 event in the Yumthang Valley in the Indian Himalayas.

Using data from both ground and aerial drone surveys, they mapped the destruction of the airblast that followed the Yumthang rock fall. This allowed them to estimate the event's maximum wind speed, which was 385 kilometres per hour...

Language: en

Keywords

Geology