The cliff face near my town looks totally different after just one winter

I hike past this sandstone outcrop in southern Utah all the time, and I took a photo of it last October. I went back last weekend and a huge section, maybe 15 feet across, has just collapsed. It left a fresh, orangey-red scar and a pile of rubble at the base. I mean, I know freeze-thaw cycles break rock apart, but I've never seen it happen that fast and that dramatically in person. It's wild how much a single season can change a landscape. Has anyone else seen a rapid change like that in a local rock formation?

3 comments

3 Comments

robertanderson1mo ago

That's a serious amount of rock to go in one winter. I've seen similar big breaks in the limestone around here after a really wet season. If you're hiking past it regularly, keep a wider berth from the base now. That fresh scar means the rock face is actively adjusting and more loose material could come down, especially with spring rain or more freeze cycles. Do you notice any new cracks in the remaining cliff above the collapse?

the_seth1mo ago

Ever seen a rock just split in half from a tree? There's this big boulder on a trail I know that had a pine growing in a crack, and over like five years the roots totally pried it open. Makes you think about all the slow forces at work, like @robertanderson said about water and ice. That fresh cliff scar probably had hidden cracks working for way longer than just one winter.

robert6413d ago

Isn't it crazy how we only see the big event and miss all the slow build-up? Like @the_seth said, that pine tree took years to split that boulder. That cliff in Utah probably had water seeping into tiny cracks for decades, maybe even centuries, before that one winter finally popped it loose. Makes you wonder what other rock faces around us are just waiting for the right freeze or the next big rain. You start to see the whole landscape as something that's always moving, just on a time scale we usually miss.