At 11:58 AM 4/29/2003 -0300, John Hudson wrote:
>
>This day 100 years ago in the Crowsnest Pass area of south west Alberta,
>Canada.
>
>"On April 29, 1903, at 4:10 am, 82 million tonnes (30 million cubic metres) of
>limestone crashed from the summit of Turtle Mountain and buried a portion of
>the sleeping town of Frank. The dimensions of the rock mass that fell are 150
>metres (500 feet) deep, 425 metres (1,400 feet) high and one kilometre (3,280
>feet) wide. The mechanism of movement that enabled the rockslide-avalanche to
>spread over 3 square kilometres (1.2 square miles) of the valley in less than
>100 seconds has been the subject of considerable discussion."
>
>More can be read at
>
><http://www.crowsnestpass.com/Tourism/historic/frankslide.html>http://www.crowsnestpass.com/Tourism/historic/frankslide.html
>
>Perhaps some members of the list have photographs of the area. Unfortunately I
>do not even though I have driven through Frank on several occasions.
Being an Albertan, I've driven through the Frank Slide area on a number of
occasions. It's quite eerie, and easily accessible via the Crowsnest Pass
highway (Interprovincial #3, which ultimately leads into B.C. wine country [
8^b ] and stunningly beautiful intermontane areas).
One theory for how the rockfall spread was that it was literally riding on a
cushion of compressed air which "lubricated" the slide (and also allowed it to
fan out with a quite discernible "edge" -- if you were standing 50 metres east
or west of the edge-line as it fell, you would have been totally unharmed, and
your pants would have been thoroughly soiled... 8^> ).
Sadly, I have no photos of the Frank Slide, though I'm doing another multi-day
photo-op drive-through of southwestern Alberta this summer, so mebbe later...
Garth
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