Assalanche?
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 4, 2008, at 9:29 PM, Devra Heyer <djhe...@swbell.net> wrote:
Would it be a craptastrophe?
--- On Thu, 12/4/08, Geary Schindel <gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org>
wrote:
From: Geary Schindel <gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org>
Subject: [Texascavers] Philosophical question
To: "Texas Cavers" <Texascavers@texascavers.com>
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 3:33 PM
In Texas, it has been pretty rare to obtain any sizable snows on
steep slopes with any sizeable population present to create a
situation where there might be a mass movement of snow which would
be defined as an avalanche. Colorado and Wyoming are different
stories as there are serious safety issues with avalanches each year.
There are a number of areas where there is sufficient cliffs for
rock falls in Texas. One of the better examples is at Big Bend
National Park where you can see the fresh rock face from the rock
fall that occurred on the cliff near Dog Canyon, north of the park
headquarters. However, Yosemite is probably better known for having
large pieces of rock break off and fall and occasionally squash
people.
If you have sufficient amounts of soil, trees, rock, and water, you
may have a land slide. I would assume that there have been a number
of landslides or slope failures on steep slopes in west Texas and
this might be an issue. I would assume that it is a fairly unusual
geohazard. However, California is famous for their landslides and
mud slides.
However, there is one geological hazards which I believe is most
probably in Texas (with the exception of the US Capitol steps).
During the last mapping trip in Punkin Cave, we were in some vents
that contained a fair amount of bat guano at an angle which could
results in mass movement of the material. Actually, the material
probably reached the lower levels of the cave by slumping as there
were no active or old bat roosts directly above the material. Our
group was having a philosophical discussion on this issue. So, if
you had a mountain of guano fall on you, would it be a crapalanche?
G
