Andrin Caviezel runs alpine experiments to predict the destructive potential of tumbling rocks
I drop rocks down mountainsides — for science. Rockslides are a major hazard here in Switzerland. They can damage roads, railways, buildings and tunnels, and the risk only grows as climate change shrinks glaciers and exposes more loose rock. Geologists can predict when and whether a particular rock is likely to fall, but that’s only part of the story.
In this picture, I’m placing a sensor inside an artificial 3.2-tonne cement block on Schraubachtobel Mountain in the Alps southeast of Zurich. These hunks of cement are more durable than natural rock and we can choose their size and shape. Once the sensor is in, a Super Puma helicopter — the biggest helicopter we can get in Switzerland — carries the block to the top of the slope and releases it. The sensor, similar to those found in smartphones, measures acceleration, rotation and force.
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