Brazil Rock Cliff Collapse

[LaurasOtherHalf]

A number of boats were below the rock face on tourist trips when the cliff collapsed, videos all over Twitter.




http://news.sky.com/story/seven-dead-after-slab-of...

[ReverendCounter]

Saw one vid in particular from a boat which looked like it was a safe distance away, seemed pretty cowardly the way they just immediately left, despite obvious casualties and possible damage to other boats.

[MitchT]

On some footage I saw it looked like rocks started falling into the water some time before the main collapse. If they'd all spotted this and got out of there straight away everyone would have escaped.

[pquinn]

They were waiting for the collapse but expected it to slump down like it usually does around there not topple over.

The way it exploded and flew apart on impact was pretty impressive. Lots of the boats took hits.

[Drumroll]

ReverendCounter said:

Saw one vid in particular from a boat which looked like it was a safe distance away, seemed pretty cowardly the way they just immediately left, despite obvious casualties and possible damage to other boats.

How long was the clip you watched? do you know they didn't come back? If you were in charge of a boat that was at its capacity with tourists would you immediately go back? Do you know how much of a wave a rockfall like that could cause? I could go on, but don't let your uninformed assumption stop you from calling people cowards.

[ReverendCounter]

Drumroll said:

How long was the clip you watched? do you know they didn't come back? If you were in charge of a boat that was at its capacity with tourists would you immediately go back? Do you know how much of a wave a rockfall like that could cause? I could go on, but don't let your uninformed assumption stop you from calling people cowards.

Good points.

1) do you know they didn't come back
- there wasn't any additional recording to show that, it just stopped once they were well underway at speed - which is why I used the word 'seemed'

2) If you were in charge of a boat that was at its capacity with tourists would you immediately go back?
- given the extreme circumstances I would - perhaps take just one smaller casualty if possible and easy to lift on board, or if not, offer first aid, or offer some other sort of help like reassuring/keeping a shock victim from worsening if possible - I could go on, as you put it

3) Do you know how much of a wave a rockfall like that could cause?
- clearly a tremendous amount of energy being immediately transferred into the water so therefore I have no idea

[Gareth79]

Here's a couple of videos of it:
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/147988304358222...
https://twitter.com/MW3NewsPortal/status/147989608...

Massive slab of rock, there's no way to know if another piece may come away from any part of the cliffs.

Apparently there was a sudden increase in flow at a waterfall nearby just before:

https://twitter.com/ConexaoGeoClima/status/1479865...

[LaurasOtherHalf]

The huge column of rock, although being unstable for what appears to be minutes before the collapse comes down in a matter of seconds-I don't think there'd be much thinking involved apart from the fight or flight response. Another video from further away showed boats colliding in the panic to get away

It did remind me of the end of Prometheus however, all anyone ever asked was why wouldn't you run sideways instead of away from the danger.

[coppernorks]

Sounds dreadful, luckily onlookers had the presence of mind to shoot videos of the calamity and helpfully put them all over social media, so it's not all bad news, people can replay it all they want from differing angles, a sort of snuff movie.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

coppernorks said:

Sounds dreadful, luckily onlookers had the presence of mind to shoot videos of the calamity and helpfully put them all over social media, so it's not all bad news, people can replay it all they want from differing angles, a sort of snuff movie.

A bit like all those old war videos, 911 footage and the screaming child running away from napalm. Thank god we've got coppernorks' moral compass to keep us in check though.

[pquinn]

Funnily enough they were hanging around there filming because they were waiting for a collapse. The only surprise was some people getting directly flattened.

[peterperkins]

Hopefully mercifully quick for the poor buggers in the boat right underneath it.

Someone will calculate the energy and volume of material using average weight of rock, volume and height of fall etc.
Equivalent to several tons of TNT I should think..
Classic example of a big wave being caused by a collapse/displacement as well. RIP.

[MitchT]

If I'd been expecting a collapse that went straight down I'd still have cleared off to a safe vantage point for two reasons. 1: The potential for a wave caused by that much material entering the water to capsize my boat. 2: The risk of being struck by a stray fragment of rock.

[Drumroll]

coppernorks said:

Sounds dreadful, luckily onlookers had the presence of mind to shoot videos of the calamity and helpfully put them all over social media, so it's not all bad news, people can replay it all they want from differing angles, a sort of snuff movie.

I would suggest that a lot of those taking videos or pictures were already doing so before the calamity struck, after all, it was a tourist site.

[pquinn]

MitchT said:

If I'd been expecting a collapse that went straight down I'd still have cleared off to a safe vantage point for two reasons. 1: The potential for a wave caused by that much material entering the water to capsize my boat. 2: The risk of being struck by a stray fragment of rock.

That's because you probably aren't a fking moron unlike the people in the video.

People might call it victim blaming but if someone is thick enough to hang around under thousands of tonnes of falling rock then if the obvious consequence arrives a surprise it must be because they were terminally stupid.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

pquinn said:

MitchT said:

If I'd been expecting a collapse that went straight down I'd still have cleared off to a safe vantage point for two reasons. 1: The potential for a wave caused by that much material entering the water to capsize my boat. 2: The risk of being struck by a stray fragment of rock.

That's because you probably aren't a fking moron unlike the people in the video.

People might call it victim blaming but if someone is thick enough to hang around under thousands of tonnes of falling rock then if the obvious consequence arrives a surprise it must be because they were terminally stupid.

I don't think so, these will have been tourists and day trippers. You put your faith and trust in the local skipper to look after you. Apparently localised landslides and rocks coming away from the cliff were common place, there had been a flash flood and the waterfall was more spectacular so they got closer to have a look.

I'm sure plenty of people would have been concerned about that but if the skippers says it's OK to go closer then they have the local knowledge and experience.

I don't speak the lingo but it sounded like the boats who had a vantage point of the rock splitting tried to warn those who were close to the edge but it happened in seconds.

[pquinn]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

I don't speak the lingo but it sounded like the boats who had a vantage point of the rock splitting tried to warn those who were close to the edge but it happened in seconds.

It was cracking and spitting out rock for a fair while (minutes) if the long videos are anything to go by, it was only when it became much more dramatic that moving seemed a good idea.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

pquinn said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

I don't speak the lingo but it sounded like the boats who had a vantage point of the rock splitting tried to warn those who were close to the edge but it happened in seconds.

It was cracking and spitting out rock for a fair while (minutes) if the long videos are anything to go by, it was only when it became much more dramatic that moving seemed a good idea.

Yes, the big fissure that can be seen from the right hand side vantage point only opens up less than a minute before it sheers off. Going off the number of boats it's obviously a big tourist attraction, it's probably something they do every day.

[TheJimi]

Eric Mc said:

poo at Paul's said:

Darwin at work, right there.

Idiots.

Disgraceful comment. Typical of keyboard judges safe behind their anonymity.

This is a dreadful tragedy for those involved and in no way should the passengers on board those boats be criticised for what happened to them.

PH on occasions sinks to the most dreadful lows at times.

Indeed.

Deeply and wretchedly unpleasant sentiments expressed there, and entirely uncalled for.

Edited by TheJimi on Monday 10th January 11:22

[TheJimi]

ReverendCounter said:

Saw one vid in particular from a boat which looked like it was a safe distance away, seemed pretty cowardly the way they just immediately left, despite obvious casualties and possible damage to other boats.

Presumably if you were one of the skippers with a boat load of tourists, after witnessing that and narrowly escaping it, you'd then consult your crystal ball to check if any more rock fall was imminent, before going back?

You and poo boy above, really need to sit down and think about this a bit more - like, a LOT more.

Edited by TheJimi on Monday 10th January 11:49