Événement

Over the last three decades, rockfalls from high Alpine rockwalls are more and more numerous and voluminous, posing safety problems for practitioners, infrastructure and valleys. Hot summers are thus very favourable periods for collapses, while certain events can mobilise several million m3 of rock, such as the Piz Cengalo case (Grisons) in August 2017 (3.1 M m3).

During the past 15 years or so, research has intensified in the Alps, especially by verifying the link between climate and rockfalls and by showing that permafrost degradation – warming of the permanently frozen ground – was a major triggering factor.

Current research aims at investigating the hydro-thermo-mechanical processes responsible for destabilisation.

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