The relevance of rock shape over mass-implications for rockfall hazard assessments.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34545090.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-25794-y and PMC identifier 8452679.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The mitigation of rapid mass movements involves a subtle interplay between field surveys, numerical modelling, and experience. Hazard engineers rely on a combination of best practices and, if available, historical facts as a vital prerequisite in establishing reproducible and accurate hazard zoning. Full-scale field tests have been performed to reinforce the physical understanding of debris flows and snow avalanches. Rockfall dynamics are - especially the quantification of energy dissipation during the complex rock-ground interaction - largely unknown. The awareness of rock shape dependence is growing, but presently, there exists little experimental basis on how rockfall hazard scales with rock mass, size, and shape. Here, we present a unique data set of induced single-block rockfall events comprising data from equant and wheel-shaped blocks with masses up to 2670 kg, quantifying the influence of rock shape and mass on lateral spreading and longitudinal runout and hence challenging common practices in rockfall hazard assessment.