Dolomites, maxi landslide above Cortina. Experts: “No ice on top”
A maxi landslide above cortina d’Ampezzo it frightened the inhabitants and beyond. It is the last Dolomite wall that the sun illuminates at sunset in the Boite Valley – we read in the Corriere della Sera – but the other evening, however, around 6.30 pm that light on Punta dei Ross suddenly went out. To obscure it was an enormous cloud of dust generated by a large portion of rock that detached from the mountain and fell into a thousand pieces and very fine dust, falling into the valley below. A cloud that gradually swelled and, moved by the wind, descended over the houses of San Vito.
A “slice” of the mountain collapsed – continues the Corriere – at 2,400 meters above sea level, thousands of cubic meters of material (the technicians will assess the extent), but the landslide stopped high up, in an uncrowded area , without any damage to people or things. Despite its spectacularity, for the red rocks that give it its name, that tremendously fractured Dolomite ridge gives you chills. Because the fate of that wall is only to come down. Piece by piece. The only question is when and in what proportions. In our studies – explains Antonio Galgaro, geologist at the University of Padua – we have seen that walls like this one, facing south and therefore more sensitive to temperature variations, in all the Dolomites show an increase in collapses at altitude. As the freezing point rises, in situations like this, with already very fractured rocks, the form of glue given by ice is missing due to heating ».