High Sierra Topix

While flying around Google Earth I noticed the photos have updated to include the rock slide that happened in 2011 on Goddard Creek. Some of you may remember my trip report of climbing across it.

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An epic slide for sure. Wish I could have seen it happen!

Another side note is I notice a great deal of brush has been washed away from the banks all the way to where I could not go any further and was forced to the West side of the creek. Judging by all the scattered trees an avalanche did some brush work. Too bad it stopped short of where I was forced to turn back and cross the creek.

I watched a NG show the other night called "Secret Yosemite." (Hardly anything secret about it, but anyway...) It had a section about the 1996 Happy Isles rock fall and the air blast it created. Did you see any sign of a massive air blast?

Yes, it would have been amazing to witness that. From a distance. A very safe distance.

I'm sure this fall produced a large pyroclastic flow when it occured but when I was there I was too miserable to be annalyzing the whole area for the effects of it. I just wanted to get to a place to camp before it got dark.

WOW!!! Now that's impressive Rouge. Your pic is fantastic, but the aerial really shows the scale of the slide/rock fall. Thanks for sharing the pic!!

Yeah the photos don't even come close to showing just how large it is or how big some of the rocks are in it.

Hi Rogue;
Nice photo - I wonder how much that would change any topo maps?!?!?
Just a small correction - a pyroclastic flow is a volcanic feature, very different from a debris flow. My inner geologist had to speak out. But that rock fall/debris flow had to cause some kind of wind blast.
Cheers,
Herm

You would know better then me but I thought a pyroclastic flow was used to describe any cloud of that nature including landslides and buildings brought down by controlled demolition?

RoguePhotonic wrote:You would know better then me but I thought a pyroclastic flow was used to describe any cloud of that nature including landslides and buildings brought down by controlled demolition?

I'm not a geologist but I did spend last night at a Holiday Inn
From Wikipedia:
A pyroclastic flow (also known scientifically as a pyroclastic density current[1]) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and rock (collectively known as tephra), which reaches speeds moving away from a volcano of up to 700 km/h (450 mph).[2] The gas can reach temperatures of about 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). Pyroclastic flows normally hug the ground and travel downhill, or spread laterally under gravity. Their speed depends upon the density of the current, the volcanic output rate, and the gradient of the slope. They are a common and devastating result of certain explosive volcanic eruptions.

Well it's certainly less dramatic to say the rock slide produced a nice dust cloud.

We were talking about your trip report when we saw that rock slide from Windy Ridge last summer.
BTW, the east side of the White Divide leading up to Tunemah Lake looks like fun, possibly next season.