I thought it was amusing the way that the camera car just started backing up... and backing up.. and backing up... as if the rock was going to start moving again. :)
It was probably not a bad move to back up and keep backing up.
With slope failures you often get a few small bits coming away before the main failure.
Although that was a bigger bit of rock than we're used to seeing move, it wasn't a big slope failure, and there could have been a lot more to come down after it.
Taiwan gets big earthquakes to loosen things up, and it gets big typhoons (some will drop up to 10 feet or more of rain in 72 hours on the Taiwanese mountains). Water in the cracks in the rock is a major trigger for slope failures.
Really big rock failures (a million tons and upwards) can get very interesting, and behave like avalanches, they're capable of running down one side of a valley and up and over the top of a smaller hill. No one's quite sure how the process operates, as we've seen images of rock avalanche debris on Mars, where entrainment of air clearly wasn't a factor in the fluidization.
The "Frank Slide" in Canada is one of the better studied examples, especially as it was triggered by human activity.
Dude in the white car definitely put on his lucky rocketship underpants that morning. A hummingbird fart would've sent that boulder on one more rotation, directly on top of his car. My guess was video dude was backing up to a) clear the path of any further slide debris, and 2) give the white car a chance to back out of the kill-zone. But the idiot got out to look, instead.
Brown racin' stripes in the ol' underwear!
ReplyDeleteDefinite high potential for fillin' up the ol' Depends, there...
ReplyDeleteThat would certainly give your glutes a workout as your ass puckers up!
ReplyDeleteSo, what is the running cost for the surgical removal of about 5 pounds of seat cushion foam rubber from your lower colon?
ReplyDeleteOf course, the driver of the first car just earned the nickname "Butt Lightyear", because his Pucker Factor just went "To Infinity and Beyond!"
ReplyDeleteI thought it was amusing the way that the camera car just started backing up... and backing up.. and backing up... as if the rock was going to start moving again. :)
ReplyDeletePeople who are utterly terrified do strange things. Hell, I think I might have done the same, because sweet shivering Shiva, that was a close one.
ReplyDeleteIt was probably not a bad move to back up and keep backing up.
ReplyDeleteWith slope failures you often get a few small bits coming away before the main failure.
Although that was a bigger bit of rock than we're used to seeing move, it wasn't a big slope failure, and there could have been a lot more to come down after it.
Taiwan gets big earthquakes to loosen things up, and it gets big typhoons (some will drop up to 10 feet or more of rain in 72 hours on the Taiwanese mountains). Water in the cracks in the rock is a major trigger for slope failures.
Really big rock failures (a million tons and upwards) can get very interesting, and behave like avalanches, they're capable of running down one side of a valley and up and over the top of a smaller hill. No one's quite sure how the process operates, as we've seen images of rock avalanche debris on Mars, where entrainment of air clearly wasn't a factor in the fluidization.
The "Frank Slide" in Canada is one of the better studied examples, especially as it was triggered by human activity.
Yeah, I'd want to be as far away from that as possible
ReplyDeleteDude in the white car definitely put on his lucky rocketship underpants that morning. A hummingbird fart would've sent that boulder on one more rotation, directly on top of his car. My guess was video dude was backing up to a) clear the path of any further slide debris, and 2) give the white car a chance to back out of the kill-zone. But the idiot got out to look, instead.
ReplyDelete