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The gravity of rockfalls

Andrin Caviezel runs alpine experiments to predict the destructive potential of tumbling rocks
  1. Chris Woolston

    1. Chris Woolston is a freelance writer in Billings, Montana.

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Andrin Caviezel checks a 3.200kg ferroconcret block in Schiers.

Andrin Caviezel is a rockfall scientist at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos, Switzerland. Credit: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters/Alamy

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.

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Nature 607, 838 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02044-9

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