Thread: That's a big boulder

Years ago they built a bypass around the town of Kenora so you did not have to go through it while on the TC Hwy. There are rock cuts all along the TC Hwy in North Western Ontario so these rock slides do happen but I have never seen a boulder this big on the road here. It's something I might expect in the Rockies. If your timing was bad it could really ruin your day.

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-ne...bypass-3515668

Bob

You know, in Norway many of the smaller cities are located at the ends of fiords. Sometimes they have massive landslides which cause tidal waves that take out entire towns killing everything in it's path. They try and monitor bad areas and have warning systems giving them a few minutes to evacuate.

Here in New Mexico in the Taos Canyon it is known for rock slides that have routinely taken out cars and buses. They finally installed steel cable fencing lining all the unstable areas which has eliminated the problem. Being swept into the Rio Grande Rapids is no fun.

Even the small ones would ruin your day.

Yep. That's a big boulder all right. That thing would flatten your car like a beer can with you in it.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You know, in Norway many of the smaller cities are located at the ends of fiords. Sometimes they have massive landslides which cause tidal waves that take out entire towns killing everything in it's path. They try and monitor bad areas and have warning systems giving them a few minutes to evacuate.

Here in New Mexico in the Taos Canyon it is known for rock slides that have routinely taken out cars and buses. They finally installed steel cable fencing lining all the unstable areas which has eliminated the problem. Being swept into the Rio Grande Rapids is no fun.

This is not in any fjord or a canyon but on a road that runs through a boreal forest making this a very unusual occurrence for a boulder this size to fall on the main east/west highway across Canada.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

This is not in any fjord or a canyon but on a road that runs through a boreal forest making this a very unusual occurrence for a boulder this size to fall on the main east/west highway across Canada.

Bob

I was only referencing what a big rock or rockfall is capable of.

Forest or not that rock had to come from somewhere.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I was only referencing what a big rock or rockfall is capable of.

Forest or not that rock had to come from somewhere.

Yea, the boreal forest is on the Canadian Shield which is rock. It comes from a rock cut that they make in the shield to run a road not some high mountain or from the top of a big canyon. Yea, the Franks Slide, where a mountain face came down due to mining was the last time I saw a boulder that size in the debris field.

Bob

Looks like a blasting engineering oops. They will have to make it smaller to move it that’s for sure.

Originally Posted by BobH

Yea, the boreal forest is on the Canadian Shield which is rock. It comes from a rock cut that they make in the shield to run a road not some high mountain or from the top of a big canyon. Yea, the Franks Slide, where a mountain face came down due to mining was the last time I saw a boulder that size in the debris field.

Bob

The Canadian Shield? At one time it was covered with the richest topsoil in the world and along came the glaciers and transported it to the midwest of the U.S. In the process the shield was scoured right down to the bedrock. If you look around up there you can find the striations in the rock which will tell you where the glaciers came from and where they went.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You know, in Norway many of the smaller cities are located at the ends of fiords. Sometimes they have massive landslides which cause tidal waves that take out entire towns killing everything in it's path. They try and monitor bad areas and have warning systems giving them a few minutes to evacuate.

There is a movie 'The Wave' about such an occurrence. Highly recommended. It's a disaster movie of course, but the science and the fact that these things are real makes the whole thing very interesting.