Launching concrete boulders down a mountain for science.
Launching concrete boulders down a mountain for science.

Researchers from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF recently gathered at the top of a 30-degree slope near Davos in the Swiss Alps where they launched large fluorescent orange weighing up to 440 lbs downhill in the name of science!

The experiments were in effort to study rockfall behaviors to create hazard indication maps of the Swiss mountain regions. The location was specifically chosen for its scree covered ground as researchers wanted to study how boulders were deflected by obstacles on rough terrain:

“Every stone starts somewhere, I want to know how far it travels and how fast it goes. They can be thrown high into the air, change direction abruptly or lose all energy in a single impact, which is exactly what interests us in this phase. So far, we haven’t looked at the interaction with slope and block debris in such detail.”  -SLF Rockfall Expert, Joël Borner 

Each concrete boulder is equipped with a long metal cylinders inserted into a pre-drilled hole. The cylinders contain sensors that measure various data, including acceleration and rotational speed. The data gathered is then uploaded to computer models to analyze different gravitational processes.

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