Video of massive rockfall, Evolène, Switzerland

youtube.com/watch?v=mSLVhNl…

Another angle here:
youtube.com/watch?v=cv6bpxU…

shamelessly copied from reddit.

In the first video, I wonder how the photographer happened to be next to the site right when the rockfall occurred. Must have been scary!

That's a big chunk of mountain coming down!

Holy -$&@!

It's was being monitored since 2013, the geologists filming the event camped up there. they predicted it would happen within 48-72hrs. They also evacuated the town and closed the road through the valley beforehand.

Bryan,

Do you know how they were able to predict it so well? Was there a big crack at the top that someone noticed was widening?

It may be useful to be able to apply such prediction methods elsewhere.

Jon Nelson wrote:Bryan, Do you know how they were able to predict it so well? Was there a big crack at the top that someone noticed was widening? It may be useful to be able to apply such prediction methods elsewhere.

They probably setup a laser monitoring system that measures the movement. There are similar systems for monitoring glacier movement. They also had something similar to measure the growth of the dome in the crater of Mt. St. Helens. There was probably a rapid increase in movement over the past week. Could well have come from fall moisture and cold temps causing just enough expansion to cause the collapse.

Not sure how(seismograph?)... article just says they've(geologists) been monitoring it since 2013

Edit: Allen's answer above mine^^ seems more likely

Allen Sanderson wrote: They probably setup a laser monitoring system that measures the movement. There are similar systems for monitoring glacier movement. They also had something similar to measure the growth of the dome in the crater of Mt. St. Helens. There was probably a rapid increase in movement over the past week. Could well have come from fall moisture and cold temps causing just enough expansion to cause the collapse.

Thanks.
Yes, this does seem likely. My reason though for asking, is that I imagine the complete story of the discovery and prediction method would be pretty interesting.

Scary shit..